9 Degrees of Yarn and Me

Haloween is in the air and on the racks

2011-09-17T13:26:00.001-07:00

I came across these adorable toddler halloween costumes at Old Navy Saturday afternoon. Why don't they make the dragon in my size...I want one! Strawberry Shortcake is also adorable and reminded me of the amazing costumes my mother made for me and my brother growing up making each and every halloween awesome (and birthdays when we got a second costume of the year) which I *will* follow up with pictorial evadenance post unpackingness.

While for me to complain about the mass production of clothes would be stupid seeing that i work in the industry, I will soap box for a moment about special occasion sewing/making like all hallows eve. There is something magical about halloween costumes. We often want to wear them all the time as children dressing up and living out our dreams, and throughout our lives for some of us. We are super visual beings with a need to dress the part, even as the knight sent to save the madien by donning a sword, it matters not that its made of plastic or cardboard. We just need that special item to storm the castle and save the seven realms from certain peril.

While I amn't going to have time this year to bust out the Rouge costume , it will remain on the list with fingers crossed for next year and something else will be complied this year that doesn't include eight to ten fittings ; ) I hope everyone is able to take a few minutes and "make" something for themselves and their little ones (boyfriends and husbands included) to help make Halloween special, even a quick five minute hat or wand to spruce up their fourth time wearing that Harry Potter costume. These are our lives and those projects no matter how complicated provide us with both tales and memories for years to come as well as that tremendously wonderful feeling..."you made that? For me?" [Insert amazingly wonderful grin and for get that camera so you have pictures to remember it for years to come].

Who are you going to be channeling this all hallows eve?

How To: Sewing your own Shower Cap

2011-05-01T21:29:00.001-07:00

I finally had to say farewell to my Hello Kitty shower cap as the elastic literally fell off and i noticed a hole at the top. Now for someone with 2+ feet of hair i need a shower cap that is industrial strength and can handle the on/off, being slept in, and not develop a colony of mold. So instead of heading off to the beauty supply store i went to the fabric store. I mean seriously, it can’t be hard to just make a new shower cap, right?

Well turns out the answer is no, it’s not hard at all. So not hard i can explain it to you here in just a few short steps, ready?

Step 0: Before you do anything … look for fabric. It was a deal breaker for me if i couldn’t find a super cute vinyl to enjoy for years to come. I found super awesome fabric, and had to compose myself at the $27 a yard price tag. I mean it’s not even a costume!!! Well when i did the math and realized i would only need 3/4 of a yard along with the plan to not have any elastic or trims it turned out the cost was still less then i’d have paid for a new one (especially since the last was from Japan and a plan ticket is a lot more than $25). So, to cross this one off the list ensure you have the following supplies:

Fabric – I chose a vinyl coated fabric, you want something water proof … and CUTE!
Matching Thread – I chose upholestry thread as it’s thicker and will stand up to wear better than plain old poly
Snaps – Sticking with the desire to have less than zero % mold i went with metal snaps instead of elastic
Color Pencil – for Fabric Marking, i keep a couple of yellow ones around the house at all times
Twine/String/Yarn – Something to help you draw a perfect circle
Tape – Anything that will hold the yarn in place for a few minutes with moderate pressure
Scissors – To cut the fabric and thread, nothing fancy required
Measuring Tape – To keep your sewing honest, and so you only have to do things once

Step 1: Prep for Circle Time. So what’s the easiest way to draft a circle? unfortunately not what i found on most the internet when i did a couple of searches. The super easy way to draft a circle is with a piece of twine/rope/yarn (i don’t even cut mine, afterwards i roll it back onto the ball). As shown below, take the yarn and tie the end to the color pencil. From the tip of the color pencil measure out half of the desired diameter of the shower cap of yarn (10.5” for me so i’d have room for curlers or rags), take a piece of tape and secure the yarn at the desired length to the back of the fabric with enough room to allow you to draft the full circle.

Step 2: Draft your circle. Now that we have everything setup, hold the color pencil up right without pulling too much on the yarn and draw your circle! Watch that you hold the pencil upright to get a real circle, instead of an oval.

Step 3: Cut it out. Now that you have a super awesome circle drawn on the back of the fabric grab your scissors and cut it from the rest of the fabric.

Step 4: Slit! Since i decided to forgo the elastic and use snaps instead i need a slit that i will finish off with some self bias tape. I cut a 3.5” slit with 45 degree angles to allow me easy access for setting the bias tape.

Step 5: Binding Off. To clean off the slit i cut strips of the fabric 2” wide for a 1/2” finished width. Once you have set the tape tack the top edge of the triangle to keep the tape flat (skipping the detailed bias tape instructions as there are about 2 million videos online :)

Step 6: Tuck, tuck, tuck. Without elastic we still need to reduce the total head opening size. Shirring is out as this is super stiff fabric, like shirring a fully lined corset – pass! So i went with tucks! I started off with 1” total reducing tucks every 1/2” and had to step it up a bit in the middle to hit my target head circumference of 21.5”.

Step 8: Bands and Snaps! After the tucks i cut out a head band section measuring 23” long by 3” wide. This allowed me to set the band like a bias tape with a 1/2” seam allowance and a finished 1” band. I tucked in the ends before finishing off with the machine and then hand sewed the ends shut. Final touch was a few snaps set at 1” to allow for adjustments

Step 9: Your Done! And in my case it’s dark outside. It amazing how time flies while hand sewing. I have given it a whirl both right side out for a quick shower and wrong side out for an overnight conditioner treatment, both with fantastic success. It sure is nice to not have to wear a towel and syran wrap for those anymore. Also the bicycles and awesome dots make this dressy enough to totally go outside with … at least for the mail ; )

How To: Getting that new Gas/Electric Stove Hooked up!

2011-04-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

The stove is here! It’s so ridiculously exciting i can barely believe it that i will finally be able to eat pasta at home again. Luckily stoves seem to come with some pretty rockin instructions so i will just cover a couple of tips instead of a massive start to finish and remind everyone of a couple things: a) TURN OFF THE ELECTRICITY before working on any wiring, you never know… b) Read the instructions. And i mean really read them BEFORE we pull out a single tool. You never know, step 15 might provide you with a diagram of what you did in step 3 or may tell you to undo what you’ve done and isn’t it nice to know these things from the start?

I am skipping the electrical part as this will be slightly different for each stove purchased, please refer tot he manual and previous posts about wiring duplexes. Remember, these are just giant, fancy duplexes that can pass a bunch more energy around, so all of the principles of wire stripping and setting are the same.

Basic Gas Piping Connections 101:

First thing to do is check that you have all of the supplies that you need: Gas Piping Tape, appropriate Gas Piping for the extension you are adding, Gas Piping “Goup”. Note that i kept repeating the word Gas in all of those. This is important as Black Gas Piping is different then other metal pipes and you will need to ensure that you get the right supplies to protect you from any Gas Leaks.

Step 1: Turn off the gas coming into the house. This will ensure that you don’t blow yourself up or die from gas poisoning, kind of important to enjoy the stove once you’re done

Step 2: Prep the existing Gas Stub for extension. Remove the cap placed on the extension, or old pipe if you are disconnecting a previously installed pipe setup. Place a small amount of goup onto the extension threading and then wrap two full passes of the Gas Piping tape over the goup and threads. This will provide a secure connection between the pipes ensuring there are no leaks.

Step 3: Screw on the first piece of the extension. Since i wanted an easy to reach shut off valve before the flex pipe to connect the gas to the stove i decided to add this extension of a 90 degree elbow and a 6” section of pipe to help elevate the shut off. So far it’s been super handy for all of the stove repairs.

Step 4: If adding the extension as i did, repeat the steps to cover the threadings on the pipe extension and then screw together using a couple of wrenches to ensure a tight seal. While you want it tight, you don’t have to kill yourself, that’s that the tape and goup are for.

Step 5: Lastly before the flex pipe we will goup and tape the threadings on the pipe and then attach the shut off valve to the extension. From here it’s the same thing of goup, tape, attach all the way up the way up to the stove, easy!

House Week 42: The Meaning of … My House

2011-04-25T23:20:00.001-07:00

As we hit this milestone things are in a good and steady groove within mi casa. No, things are no where near done, but somehow it is all starting to come together. This week, with the help of my new best friend the oven, bread and cookies were baked and life returned a bit back to pre-move normalcy. I am really enjoying the oven and just need to get the stupid broken knob fixed. Oh well, something has to be on the fix it list at all times right?

Also to celebrate the milestone (and offer me a bit of flexibility) the week numbered posts are goin’ the way of the dino…to be only seen in the archives going forward. Oh don’t think this means the end of the house updates! In truth it’s more so i can bombard you with all sorts of other things about the house that have nothing to do with progress and not feel guilty about the blogging and lack of items i’m able to check off the to-do list at the end of each week.

Some existing news … i ordered my flooring! I went with a stranded poplar in 4” wide planks which happens to be 100% recycled. The flooring is a beautiful deep red/brown/black with different highlights throughout as is produced by Eco Timber – Last Dance.

The idea is to run this in a single direction the entire length of the house to mimic the original fir flooring that was in the home when i purchased it. We are still figuring out if this is a project we want to do ourselves or just pay someone else to do. Unfortunately if it gets added to our “family” list then i may not have a floor until Christmas (yes, it’s not even Memorial Day yet!) which, while not the end of the world, is a lot longer then i would like to have to wear shoes at all times in my own home. So many things to figure out…

Winter is Finished … in Cardigan Form

2011-04-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Back, oh so long ago…March, i finished the cardigan i have been toting around since the end of the summer from place to place doing knit knit knit knit knit knit. Yep Just knitting the sleeves in the round somehow took me forever. But alas i have finally finished the Tea Leaves Cardigan!

Thank you Inder for the FANTABALOUS pictures of my Purple bundle of warmth!

Next … onto a re-do of my first sweater. You remember the one, where i was wider than tall. Yea, it’s been ripped out and i am nearly 50% done with the body!

House Week 41: and i said Let there be Light! (and a couple of Smoke Detectors)

2011-04-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

It’s amazing how much a few lights can really make a place look lived in. Or in my case … live-able. I have been stealing time away from work and everything else in my life for months so since the move in i have put a lot on the back burner to try and re-connect with the world and my friends. The outcome has been a much happier me. The second outcome is that i don’t have tons to blog about regarding the house (knitting coming soon!!!) as little process has been occurring, but that’s more than none. So what have i been finding time to do around here? Install lights!

First off…not one single shock! Crazy i know, but with all of the electrical work i have done on this house i have not shocked myself once, not even a little bit. I guess it pays to check, re-check, and re-check once more that all of the switches and breakers are off before beginning any work.

Installing lighting fixtures is one of those 15 minutes here and another 10 minutes there type task that you can perform whenever, as long as you can get another light into the room so you don’t fall off the ladder onto a pile of shoes or something equally deadly. Luckily i have plenty of portable lights since the move in was completed before all of the walls were sealed so non of the lights were set yet. So how do you install a light fixture you ask? Easy!

First pick out the fantabalous new fixture that you will enjoy for years to come and get it to you house. Once you have the fixture there are a couple of different types so the installation will vary. The first set i tackled were the closets which being a super simple ceramic pull chain were a snap!

PULL CHAIN CERAMIC CLOSET FIXTURES - These are the most simple and what i found on the pull chain lights i installed in the closets. Follow these instructions if you fixture does not have any wires coming off of it, only screws (similar to the duplex outlets installed earlier). First you strip off approximately 1/2” of the covering over the wires you have already run everywhere. Actually let’s back up one step. TURN OFF THE CIRCUT BREAKER FOR THAT FIXTURE. This is so you don’t die and can finish the rest of the installation yourself. Ok, with the power off and the wires stripped bend the tips into a horseshoe shape.

Next place the appropriate wires over their screws and use the electrical pliers once more to tighten the horseshoe shape around the screw so the majority of the wire is now touching the screw. Next take the screwdriver and set the screws tight clamping down the wire in place.

If you have a grounding screw in the light can you can use that for your remaining stripped copper ground wire so that you do not get shocked each time you pull the chain on the light. Otherwise there are bars and clips that you can purchase at the hardware store to replicate this, and grounding is important! Now that you have all of the wires set to the fixture and box we will set the fixture. For the ceramic pull chain fixtures i set the screws most of the way prior to placing the fixture on so that i didn’t have to hold it in place the entire time i set the screws. Now that it’s attached, turn back on the power, screw in a blub, and pull the chain. Did it light up? If so…congratulations! If not, i’d call an electrician.

HARD WIRED SMOKE DETECTORS: While i usually only procrastinate a little bit, for these i was way overdue. I know they are annoying and i know they always go off at the absolute wrong time, but they really can save your life. And if you cook as much as i hope to in the future (once the oven arrives) then they are a must regardless that they are required by law.

So how to you set them? TURN OFF THE POWER and then connect the colors! Using my new best friends “Wire Nuts” you simply place the white with the white, black with the black, and if you are linking multiple units the red from your 3-way wire to the orange on the unit!

Next set the screws a bit, same as the pull chain lighting, before setting the smoke detector onto the wall so you don’t have to hold it in place the whole time that you are setting the screw. Slip the smoke detector over the screws and set them the final few turns to firmly attach the unit to the wall/ceiling.

Plug the wires into the unit and swivel the unit onto the housing until it is snug. Turn the power back on and perform the initial test to confirm it is working (usually holding a button and having your ears blasted with a couple of quick beeps). Also check for the magical green light! If you have it…you are a go! (roger, roger)

BREAKING NEWS I have an Oven!!!

2011-04-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Yes ladies and gentleman … i have received my fantastic Aga Oven i ordered over a year ago. Here it is, fresh off the truck, sans the plastic, and i am super ready to get back into the baking swing of things. I have greatly missed my banana breads and cranberry scones these few months that the toaster oven just couldn’t reproduce.

Now i just need to do a couple quick things before i begin my baking spree…

Pipe the gas line from the wall
Wire the new duplex super fancy plug
Attach the handles
Set the burners, covers, and grills
…and buy a new bread book!!!

All of these fun things will be written about this week! I promise! Lots of pictures for anyone else out there thinking of getting a new fancy pants oven for themselves or a super loved one.

Also for those of you out there wondering just how i’ve been eating for the last two months, here is a picture of my ENTIRE kitchen worth of food prep: table, drying rack, electric kettle, toaster oven, and Brita pitcher. Also the “kitchen sink”. Yep, this oven is long over due along with maybe some cabinets…

House Week 40: Screwing Things in Place – Front Porch

2011-04-09T19:23:00.001-07:00

So after weeks and weeks of rain i was finally able to get all of the porch boards sealed on all sides, which meant once i got back from LA they were ready to be drilled, screwed, and walked on. Since we had planned ahead (for once) all of the boards were cut and marked making it truly as easy as it sounds. Here’s what i did:

Step 1: Determine the Spacing for the screws and boards. While this sounds easy, it actually is! The hardest part is ensuring that the holes for the screws are equidistant from both edge of the boards. This is helpful if you ever damage a board and want to turn it over to the other face so that holes align and you are not tearing up the boards or joists. As the template we drilled our holes into a paint stirrer stick which was super light and easy to use board to board. Also to ensure that the boards don’t move around or squeak i placed screws on every other joist. This meant that the boards were screwed down in three different positions the length of the board averaging every 24”.

Step 2: Lay out all of the boards exactly where you want them and mark the spots for the screws. By laying things out first you are able to ensure that you have all of the boards in the right spots and make adjustments if necessary. Mark the holes using a sharp felt tip marker. When you remove the template check that you can see your marks, little is more frustrating then having to go back and remark everything a second (or third) time.

Step 3: Drill! Well before you drill check that you have the appropriate sized drill bit. I had the right size but found out i have a talent for breaking off drill bits. Off to the hardware store i went with a piece of the porch and they were able to help me find dre_ah strength drill bits which i managed to not even break one of…nice! Drill as straight of a hole as possible where you placed you marks on all of the boards.

Step 4: Screw! Once you’ve drilled the boards realign all of the spacing around each board, the Merbau recommended 5/16” (check the manufacturers info for the board spacing as some woods need more than others). Once in alignment pull out your giant box of deck screws (ensure the screws are appropriate for the weather you porch will be enjoying) and screw down the boards. I found it helpful to stand on the individual board i was setting to ensure it didn’t move. Also i placed one screw along the top of each of the boards down the entire row came along the back of the row repositioning each board setting one screw to get them all right where i wanted them before setting all of the remaining screws. This allowed me to maneuver them instead of having to pull out the screws to make minor adjustments. Here is a picture of what we have so far…

Step 5: Set the remaining screws…and you’re done! Time to enjoy that awesome porch! Or in my case, go buy a rosemary plant.

House Week 39: Prepping the Merbau Boards for the Porch

2011-03-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Having made the decision about the what, now all that was left to get started was picking them up. This was made easy as they come in 12’ lengths, so with a smile a request was made to have them cut in half and in half they were cut fitting perfectly into the truck! Thank you Ashby Lumber! Once we had the boards back at the house it was time for some planning on where and how we wanted to position them for the best look (the porch isn’t quite square…). We decided to align the first board with the inside edge of the front steps so we could work our way towards each end from a central starting point. This allows us to adjust the spacing for each board as necessary to accommodate the shape of the porch.

The board to the far left is our “starter” board, the first board we positioned for the porch and what all of the other boards will be spaced from. To the right we have started to trim the other planks to fit recessed in the porch.

After each of the boards were cut it was quittin time so piled high into the garage they went to await tomorrow when they would begin their path to “sealed”-ness. Luckily we had a bit of good weather allowing me to get a coat of wax along each cut end to seal the boards from a future damage. Even through they are kiln dried they still need to be sealed to prevent moisture from entering the wood, which is done all over the boards at the factory so i only had to touch up the spots where we had trimmed them to fit in the space.

After the sealing is done and dry, another day, then it’s time to begin the multi day process of staining each of the surfaces of the planks for added durability. Yes they have a crazy warranty and yes they are already sealed, but this is one of those things you do so you don’t ever have to do it again…ever! Here are the boards laid out after i have applied the stain to the top.

Once the stain has been on the board for 30 minutes or so what is going to sink in has and it’s time to wipe the excess off and allow the wood to begin drying. Be careful what type of rags you use as a) if it has fuzzies they will be permanently left behind on your wood and b) after this it’s going in the trash (no favorite dish towels please). I found painters cloths to work well and my father swears by microfiber cloths. Oh, almost forgot, wear GLOVES! THis stuff will totally eat your hands, even the eco friendly ones. When they called them “green” they must have been thinkin of piranhas!

Once you get the excess off its back to waiting, something i have found i spend a lot of time doing with this house. I gave each side the full day with applying the stain by 10am and then leaving them to dry in the sun until i brush my teeth for bed about 10pm, only doing a single side each day. It has taken four sessions, but they look great and haven’t stuck to each other once! Here is a shot of a board in the sun after it has dried for a few days from the stain. Pretty yellow flecks…

House Week 38: Researching for the Right Planks for the Front Porch

2011-03-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

Yep, it’s a real house all weather tight and i have officially moved in!!! YEA!!!!!!! Weather tight is actually more important then you may think here right now with our sideways rain and shooter marble sized hail. Another thing that is tremendously important is solid ground, and well it’s about time i move on from the ever so trendy plywood porch to something a bit more traditional, like wood planks maybe? So off to the wood planks place (Ashby Lumber) i went to find some wood…

The weekend consisted of researching the ever burdening question “What kind of material should i buy?” While this sounds easy, it’s actually tricky since there are tons of products out right now that are really only made to last a few years. Crazy huh! Who’d want to spend all of the time laying boards down for their porch to only do it a few years again? Well the answer is no one. Most of these products are marketed to people who want to do something cheap and don’t care for one reason or another, usually they either are already selling the place and just want to spruce it up or they are planning to soon and would like to get a ouple of extra dollars. I narrowed it down to a couple of different products.

First was Trex, which is made of “recycled materials”. I hate it when things refuse to tell you what they are made of…it’s just lame! So that was one ding, and they were eliminated as a choice when i found out that it is not recommended to place the boards in direct sunlight. Ummm, that is silly! From speaking with others who have it installed it seems to hold heat a bit too well so the surface becomes ridiculously hot to the touch which would so not work with my need to be barefoot all year.

Second was Merbau, which is a super hard wood which for this product is grown sustainably in the tropical Asia-Pacific region and was promised to not burn my feet, yea! The wood has a soft brown grain with streaks of yellow highlights giving it a fantastic depth. The product has a 50 year lifespan, which then you can turn it over and use the other side so 100 years in total. Another bonus, something i only have to do once not matter how long i live. It wasn’t cheap, but it did not break the bank either, decision made, time to go pick it up.

House Week 37: Back to Stripping … Paint

2011-03-19T13:10:00.001-07:00

There is a never ending amount of items original to the house that i have been stripping 90 years of paint off of since last year, and unfortunately the pile has not visibly shrunk. With the trim going up around the windows in the front of the house it is imminent that the actual windows themselves will need to be ready for installation. With the world thinking all of the rain needs to fall now and in Berkeley i took advantage of a break in the storms to attempt to strip the two fixed windows that will be set in the living room as i will not have time to finish all of them before they go up, and well it seems to make sense to focus on the ones that will be nailed in place…right?

Stripping paint is definitely not a strenuous job (like laying a porch), but where it lacks in strength it makes up for in time. Lots of time! Most of stripping is waiting, testing, waiting some more, and then waiting just a bit longer still, and THEN going at the object scraping and swirling with steel wool trying to loosen as much as possible before you start the whole thing over again. I have found a relatively earth friendly brand of paint stripper i like, Citristrip, which has a super pleasant odor of oranges and lemons so it’s not so bad during all of the waiting while i read. Also it works…watch!

So here are the 90 year old windows i focused on in all of their 7+ layers of paint glory…

So here’s the steps…

After i got the windows out and setup in a shady spot i gave them a damp dusting, not too wet, just enough to break through the dirt/dust (and cobwebs) that has been accumulating on them since they came out of the house a year ago.
Once they were clean i used a dry cloth to make sure to remove any remaining water or dust. They have to be *dry* for the stripper to work.
Time to glob on the stripping gel. I just open the jug and pour in over the surfaces sparsely and then go back over it with a paint brush to distribute evenly. I think the directions say to put it in a can and brush in on from there… (but we all know i hate directions!) The trick seems to be a good even layer nearly a 1/16'” thick over the entire surface to ensure good coverage. This is one of those times that more is totally better. Also note that if you have metal hardware on whatever you are stripping, like the casement hinges on the windows, you can remove or leave on and the stripper will help clean them up too, no damage
Time to wait! I give them about two hours before i even poke at them…
You will need to test an area to see if they are ready yet, but i wait a minimum of two hours AND look for the tell tale sign of the paint curling together. No curls or bubble, it’s not done. If it’s dry and there are none, add another coat to help restore the moisture levels so the stripper can get back to work.
Once you have the ripples test a corner using a plastic scraper (metal at you own risk, i totally learned this the hard way with an ugly scratch on the glass). You should get a good couple of layers off at a time.
While it would be nice, this is not a single coat type thing. For my crazy hundred layers it took two passes, which is nothing! So from here depending up how much paint you got off repeat steps 3 through 6 at least once more and and many times as necessary to get close to the wood. Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t all come through, we have something else for that.
Once you have *most* of the paint off time to move over to the Mineral Spirits and Steel Wool. Unfortunately this is something that stinks to the high heavens. There are “Green” and “Odorless” ones, which i used, but they are definitely not odorless! Be sure this is done outside or somewhere you and nothing else will be for at least a day. Pour a sparing amount of mineral spirits directly onto the wood and scrub at the remaining paint. I started with “00” pads and they worked great without scratching up the glass and metal.
Keep working with adding more mineral spirits and changing out your steel wool pads once they are full of paint (remember they have two sides!). I used an old rag to help clean off the areas as i finished them.

And here are the windows after a full day…

Aren’t they fantastic! I am super impressed and can’t wait to see them up in the house!!! Which will mean i can move in :)

House Week 35 & 36: Trimming the Windows and Entry Doors

2011-02-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

Now that there is a bit of paint over the interior walls and ceiling in the east side of the house it is starting to feel more and more like a real house. One addition i decided it was time to get moving on was some trimmings around the windows to help finish off their look and really bring the house back to the 20’s. I found a fantastic Wood Worker, John Kraft (who does not have a website, so message me for his contact info if you are looking for an amazing carpenter). We were put in touch though Belmont Hardware when i decided that chiseling out the front door to enlarge the mortise area was a bit beyond my skill-set, a realization that occurred in the form of dreams where i put a giant hole in the front door and spent the next two months looking for one that was the same size.

After getting through getting locks onto the doors we discussed a couple of options for casements around the doors and windows and decided to go with a relatively flat look that has a small bead of wood along the header intersection to help break up the to portion of openings and give them a bit of grace. Aren’t they fantastic?!?!?!?!

Most of the windows are complete along with all of the exterior doors. The interior doors will follow in a few months once the floor is in place to ensure the casings are flush with the floor with the exception of the bathroom door which has been hung to give everyone a bit of privacy within my still totally a construction zone home.

My very first Housewarming gift!

2011-02-27T18:50:00.001-08:00

This is totally my kind of neighborhood. There is a bbq down the way with bicycles locked up to every pole on the street and I was just given an amazingly tasty loaf of Banana bread...my favorite!!! It is super nice to feel this house thing really is all worth it.

House Week 34: It’s a dusty job, but someone’s gotta do it … Dusting the walls to prep for paint

2011-02-27T14:44:00.001-08:00

Now that the drywall is up, mudded, and sanded it’s time for me to get to work clearing out all of this drywall dust from the walls and ceiling so i can get the drywall sealed with primer and move onto the fun real decorating portion of the home owning. You would think that this would be a super fast thing to do, but drywall dust is a tricky little buggar. The dust is super fine and it seems to evade all types of cleaning cloths. The project was begun using plain old terry cloths rags and a ladder which drained not just my patience but also all of my energy. It is super annoying to rub in circles on the ceiling removing drywall dust at the speed for a square foot every 20 minutes. So i turned to the all shortcut knowing internet to assist me in speeding things up…there had to be a better way.

The better way was found deeply rooted in a message board post about cleaning up drywall to prep for paint where someone mentioned Swiffer dusting cloths. Normally i would have shied away from such and un-eco friendly method, but the terry cloth rags were so full of dust i wasn’t going to be able to wash them either so it seemed like a worth while trade to give the Swiffer cloths a try so out came a box i have had for many years to give it a try. The results were an entire ceiling in 20 minutes. It was a very nice change!!! After depleting the box i ventured out in search of more of these magical drywall dust removers to finish the work and returned endowed with 15 boxes (running out would have been annoying).

The rest of the house went smoothly and i have decided sticks with rags on the end rock! All of the walls and ceilings are dust free and in only four evenings after work, not bad. Unfortunately the “tower of towels” was thrown away before the documentation ceremony could occur so i leave you to imagine what a nearly two foot tall stack of dust laden Swiffer cloths stacked in a slightly leaning tower looks like.

Helping out in the NeverNever

2011-02-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the ads in the BART stations have an instantaneous giggle producing effect on me...enter the fairy assistance ad. Getting a couple dollars off for checking in somewhere or status on a scoreboard is cool, but assisting fairies in modding their bodies is much more intriguing. I wonder if there is a chart to track the fairy morphing progress? Or if I could pick the fairies to assist or meet them and determine the wing type and shape. I think I may need new wings myself ; )

House Week 33: I have to install how many switches???

2011-01-22T22:18:00.001-08:00

Now this may only be a 1200 sq foot home, but i think it has enough electrical plugs, switch, and lights for a 4 floor hospital! Luckily it’s super easy to install new duplex outlets, so there it begins.

I managed to race through the standard duplex outlet plugs installing all 35 in less than a day. It basically entailed stripping half and inch off of each of the wires, bending them into a slight loop, pulling the loop over the screw on the outlet, tightening the screw and attaching to the wall…with more screws! Piece of cake! Then it was onto the GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters). These are the fancy ones that trip at the switch when they are overloaded. In 2010 these were required anywhere with “water”, so the bathroom and kitchen counters all required these special plugs. The special plugs were very special in price (1500% more than standard plugs), but extremely easy to install as they had the screws to attach the wires to like the standard outlets, but you can also wire them by inserting the stripped wire into the back of the outlet and setting the screw. No need to try to keep the little buggar in place and following orders. As there were three in the bathroom and four in the kitchen this rounded out a morning while waiting for my latest building inspection, sign off for power!!!

From the plugs i moved onto the switches. I found some fantastic push button switches with an inlay of mother of pearl at Rejuvenation (where all my gorgeous lights are coming from). Very similar to what the house would have had when it was built in 1920 they were also a critical style detail for me. They sell all of the basic “types” of switches in picture below right to left.:

Single Pole – These are singularly responsible for turning things on and off and have a single mother of pearl inlay on a button
3-Way – These share the responsibility with another switch somewhere else to turn on/off the light(s), these have mother of peal inlays in the top and bottom buttons as both are live
Dimmer – These come in both single pole and 3-way versions, unique here these have a “button” for the top portion of the switch and a turn knob in the bottom to control the brightness of the light, there are even different wattages 300 or 600!

I have most of the switches in, but a few will have to wait until my final inspection as there are building codes about what kinds of switches you need in laundry rooms and bathrooms, which is lame. Oh well, lame doesn’t mean i don’t h ave to do it…so off to find occupancy light switches i go! Here are a few receptacles attachment pictures.

House Week 31 & 32: No love lost in saying goodbye to an old friend … the portable toilet has been removed from my front yard!!!

2011-01-18T23:40:00.001-08:00

Over the holidays both us and the tile guys worked towards a single goal of finishing in the floor in the bathroom. So what’s so important about the floor you ask? Well the floor needed to be finished to set the toilet, which has been in my living room for 7 months, but more importantly once there is a toilet the portable toilet in my front yard would get to go away!!!

Not surprising the motivation was right and i’m happy to say the toilet was set before the new year. The Shower walls and floors are completely done and beautiful. I’m so impressed at how well everything is coming together. Well here are the pretty pictures… Someday i may even get a bathroom door ; )

Meandering through a Day Trip North of the City

2011-01-03T00:37:00.001-08:00

An awesome friend made me a fantastic self guided tour to get to know the north a bit better. It was the perfect way to start off the new year driving through beautiful country with tons of places marked out to stop for tea! It also helped me work to really kick this cold as with the house getting ready to ramp back up it may be awhile before i have another lazy sunday to kill in my car.

The adventure started off in Petaluma, off the main drag at a cute little place … Aqus Cafe. Yes i’d only been away from home for 30 minutes, and yes i already needed more tea so i popped in and was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere, range of music nights (jazz to celtic), and super friendly staff. Refilled on tea i wandered the back streets a bit admiring the houses that look like how mine will some day look when there are no longer boards on the windows ;p Now i knew there would be water somewhere on the journey…and there it was! There is something to be said about being level with a boat while standing in the street drinking tea.

While staying on the tour route i took a slight detour through a cemetery with beautiful head posts from the mid to late 1800’s. I really need to go on a dead people in California tour as there have to be beautiful cemeteries outside of Japan and the Yucatán. I found something odd in leaving your departed loved one a pumpkin, anyone able to explain this?

From here a short drive to the town/city of Valley Ford for brunch. The recommended spot was the towns happening seafood place Rocker Oysterfeller's, but i found the most perfect thing on the menu of Carmel Apple French Toast with Fresh Whipped Creme, random! The random vibe was continued when next door to the post office the house had the front windows full of trophies. It was actually kind of creepy come to think of it…

Then to continue to the drive i headed to Occidental, saw a fantastic herb shop i had to go in, found out said shop was super closed for the day, and left pouting a bit while i drove off in the wrong direction to later turn around and find the correct direction without GPS (as apparently AT&T has decided having service in Occidental is not important as there was nothing). The entire drive i kept wanting to get out of the car, and did, to stare at the mossy/lichen covered trees. The camera didn’t quite get the “glow”, but we’ve all seen it, amazing what the sun can do when it’s not burning me.

Once back on the right track i was put onto Coleman Valley Road which was billed as "the county's prettiest road", which i would have to agree with. The sights coming through the hills over looking the valley was amazing coupled with the perfect amount of fog, sun, and just plain old clouds. Unfortunately it was way more than the camera could take so the pictures were really pretty, one of those had to be there to believe it type things. The prettiest road ended by dropping me off on Highway 1 headed for Goat Rock Beach. Here are pretty beach photos! (Are aliens moving on from Crop Circles to Sand Circles?)

And the over sized vegetation on the way to the final destination on my tour, Sebastopol for dinner and beer! I kept seeing these larger than life plants along the river on the road and it was causing a total down the rabbit hole effect, which was made slightly more weird by a quick neighborhood pre-dinner tour finale of front yard art, which began deep in the rabbit hole. So i know i’ve seen his work before…what’s the artists’ name???

A beautiful way to start to the new year exploring places super close to home. The tour was amazing so i will definitely be hitting said friend up again for some of the other mentioned tours, like cemeteries…

A Merry-Go-Round Christmas Adventure

2010-12-26T21:17:00.001-08:00

So there has been absolutely no time for travel with the housing adventures, and really no money either…so i’ve decided to start exploring my own “backyard” per sea and start checking out what it has to offer. For Christmas in particular i needed a snazzy destination to help fill the void left by growing up with parents that actually own 6’ tall nutcrackers that line their garage throughout the holidays and lights that run off the computer with sound accompaniment; coupled with being less than an hour from Disneyland…a lot to live up to. I scoured and searched online and a couple of papers looking for a super lights fantastic street to help jump start my holiday spirit; nothing! And i mean not a single street listed anywhere. There were a couple of houses listed within 30 miles, but i’m not driving that far to look at a single lit house, lame.

Though there were no neighborhoods for me to wander there was one place that stood out and having awesome potential to fill an hour or so of wandering around … the Tilden Merry-Go-Round! It’s definitely the closest thing to DL up here i’ve found so far (that isn’t creepy fairytale land). I went on the Wednesday night before Christmas and they had a Santa, Hot Chocolate, Carmel Corn, and tons of other tasty treats. A much better environment to take your kids to see Santa then the mall.

The lawn was strewn with all types of neon signs for all of the different holiday events and cute little scenes. I love the Cacti!!!

The Merry-Go-Round is a beautiful historic item in the Tilden Park, and it’s indoors. For the holidays they decorated themed Christmas Trees (when seems to have been the trend this year) placed all around the exterior perimiter of the Merry-Go-Round inside. The trees were georgeous and tons of fun, i wonder if they were done as a contest or just by the people who work there? Tree “Themes” as interpirited by me (Left to Right, Top to Bottom): Traditional, Bird/Child Cage (my Favorite), Candy Store (actually in the candy store), the Devil? maybe Mardi Gras? Archery, Country Christmas

After wandering around in the fantastically warm room for a bit i decided to head out. Normally i would not pass up a ride on a Merry-Go-Round but we are talking about a 45 minute line to ride on a fake animal for 3 minutes…pass! On the way out i noticed EVIL penguins stealing Santa’s Mail!!! I always wondered where my letters went, next year i’ll be prepared!

Seduction, Bloody Ballerina Toes, with the ambiance of Russian Ark | Black Swan

2010-12-22T00:11:00.001-08:00

So i walked in, ready to sit down and look at pretty costumes for just over an hour of my evening. I walked out shocked by the depth of the story and just how far Aronofsky took us down the rabbit hole with Black Swan. I’ll do my best for no spoilers, which isn’t terribly hard for a film that left you in nearly as much clarity as The Shining and Russian Ark.

At the beginning of the film you are introduced to Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, who at first glance you may guess is still a teenager by dress, style, and attitude. Through the course of the course of the film i still haven’t the faintest idea how she got to where she is, just a sense what drives her. There are tens of theories one could draw about the why’s of madness, but they are never quite as interesting as just watching the mad.

We get a couple of other stars in the film, Mila Kunis as Lily and Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy, who are the perfect pair to taunt and tease. Together they set our “Little Princess” on a path of self discovery with only one of two outcomes…perfection or complete self destruction (yep, the movie really was that deep, i swear!!!). Also cast a fantastic Winona Ryder as Beth MacIntyre as the “retiring” star ballerina. After all of these years it’s amazing to see her with all of the passion and fire as in Heathers when outside of the kegger when she lets Heather #1 have it. Unfortunately we only get about 15 minutes total of the Veronica awesomeness, but it’s enough to make me smile.

The costumes were beautiful, but those girls are way to skinny!!! I think it may have been what kept me on edge the entire film, waiting for some moment of anorexia or bulimia hysterics…which i guess looking back we did get a bit of, but in the moment they felt so perfect and natural they did not standout. Odd how you can be on the edge of your seat for something to happen and then completely miss it when it happens. While we do get to see the “show” before the film ends it had much more of a Moulin Rouge costume approach with beautifully simple garments throughout in anticipation of the bejeweled and feathered costumes within the performance; which i think i like the build up better. I’m not a dancer, but all of the layers and warm up pieces on Natalie Portman were gorgeous! The Costumer Design, Amy Westcott, wonderfully balanced the white and black swans through out the film in all of the characters giving us windows into the souls of where each person was at in their transformation throughout the film.

The films website www.ijustwanttobeperfect.com is super fun with clips and portions of the soundtrack if you need more encouragement to checkout the film. Also here are a couple of movie posters, i so wish we got more of these in the states…beautiful imagery and i totally would have been in line opening night!

House Week 30: Hours with the Daisies

2010-12-18T12:35:00.001-08:00

This week on the continuing adventures of “Home of Jones” we finally obtain tile. All week the tile guy has been spacing and gluing down tile for the floor and shower pan/walls. Like all of the other things i have seen come together for the house it was simply amazing to watch and see the tile all laid out in the bathroom. The amount of “Period” it has already added to the house is fantastic, the daisies and hexagon tiles are perfect! Can’t wait to get the tub, sink, and toilet into the room to pull it all together!

Here are a couple of close-ups of the daises, which even after posting about for nearly a month i am STILL not sick of…i love these!!! Top is a daisy for the corner of the room also showing the room border. Next is a close-up after being glued down. Lastly a shot of them all in a row.

Friday afternoon entailed nearly 3 hours of pulling apart glued tile sheets to create daises and playing with positioning them on the floor to not look busy. It will *definitely* be worth the effort over the years. Here are some pictures of the shower pan and walls … i can’t wait to move in!!!!!!

After all of the bathroom tile experiences and how beautiful it is a can’t wait to save up some cash and have the kitchen and laundry room done. It’s amazing how much these little period details can transport you back in time, at least to the utopia i imagine for the 20’s in my mind. I’m glad reality isn’t the only thing the human brain can live in.

Apples all Mashed up in Airtight Glass Containers

2010-12-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

Yep, Apple Sauce! I have found over the last few months with my vegan baking kick i am burning through apple sauce like nobodies business. This has been a goal since the end of summer with all of the apples appearing out in the world and others beautiful canning projects teasing me. Unfortunately i had this crazy notion that i also was somehow going to find the time to go and actually pick these apples myself, HA!!! So this project lingered and collected dust until the 4th time in a row of the grocery store being OUT of plain apple sauce. I mean seriously people! How am i supposed to live my ridiculously healthy lifestyle that the bay area commands without a good organic apple sauce available at my local grocery store ; )

So i brought 15 lbs of apples, ha, that will teach the grocery store to be out of apple sauce. I was surprised at how inexpensive organic apples were just down the street from my house. They are from Oregon, which is not the closest apple farm by far, but it’s better than Chile or Mexico where so much of other American produce comes from. Okie, i’ll set that aside to rant about another day.

Back to the beautiful apples… I picked up one 5 lb bag of each of the following: Grannysmith, Gravenstien, and Pink Lady. I washed, chopped, and de-stemmed all 15 lbs in about an episode of This American Life (45 minutes and what i usually cook to). Through the chopping i made the decision to skip the softer types next year (Gravenstien/Pink Lady) and look for look for firmer red apples to help keep up with the texture of the Grannysmiths.

After all of the chopping i got to cook the apples to help soften them up for the next step … food mill! To help explain my excitement at the mention of a food mill let’s recap my childhood quickly. i grew up in a super suburban southern California home with a backyard that was 20 feet deep and the width of our 1400 sq ft the house, period. We divided the yard into three equal sections and managed to squeeze in a couple of fruit trees (plum, peach, and nectarine), small garden (even some sad grapes), and a square of grass that was 18’ x 18’ and a favorite for the dogs (two 120 lb+ animals really need some nature). Not so farm like, there was no playing in the fields and until the garden when i was 8 or 9-ish i had never seen food growing in the ground. So as a child the one time when mom borrowed the giant and awesome food mill from grandma was a stupendous event. I don’t even remember what we used it for, just that it left an impression. I was so excited when i got to pull out my brand new food mill that was purchased for the apple saucing in particular, and also amazed when shopping for one and how much they have changed over the years. Grandma’s clamped onto the table and we had to how the bowl to catch everything underneath it, or use a stool. Now they just sit over a bowl, thank for for 21st century improvements.

And then it was mushy apple-y goodness…mmmmmmm. I decided to keep the jars all plain and unsweetened so they can be used for either baking or tasty afternoon snacks. I have only had the opportunity to taste the leftovers, but with a dash of cinnamon, awesome! The 15 lbs yielded 7 pints, not bad. It will be interesting to see how much is left after the holiday baking.

Three Stranded Computer Gloves | Birthday Gift

2010-12-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

I love when i have the time to sit down and hand craft a gift for a friend for a special occasion, like a birthday! Over the last few years a lot of my friends have been getting shuffled all over the US offering me the ability to knit some darn warm items for those in the North East. With the approaching birthday of one such friend i decided something warm and practical would be the most appropriate as they spend a lot of time working with the computer … fingerless gloves! I milled around for a week looking for the perfect pattern, found it and then milled around for another week looking for the perfect yarn. Little did i know i was looking for two yarns to achieve the right amount of fuzz, warmth, and function.

The base yarn selected was Alchemy Haiku in 07c - Sugar Mountain to be paired with Habu Textiles A-34 2/26 Cashmere in grey. Both beautiful yarns, and both in a super light fingering weight. Luckily double stranding the Alchemy with a single strand of the Habu gave me darn close to the requested gauge, and a super soft fabric.

This was my first foray into the realm of knitting things for the hands, apart from the mushroom wristlets which are still just tubes. I selected a pattern that looked relatively plain, with just a hint of fanciness to help the beautiful yarns shine – Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters. I was impressed at how easy the instructions were to follow for a first time thumb gusset-ter. Also the pattern was enjoyable with a great mix of some basic time killing stockinette paired with a couple simple yet beautiful lace insert. These knit up in just over a week, perfect time to pop them in the mail for the birthday gal!

Here is a link to the Ravelry post.

Leg Warmers | Things to Keep Me Warm While i Craft For Others

2010-12-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what is going on with the weather here in the Bay, i mean lows of 35F at night are just not our norm and i am C-O-L-D! So to ensure that i keep moving my hands to attempt the crazy Christmas Crafting deadlines i am needing something to help me not freeze to death…enter new Leg Warmers! I have never been able to knit or sew with fingerless gloves on so those were out, but i am a totally freak about keeping my legs warm. Ever since i was a kid i thought all of those people wearing giant puffy jackets and cut off shorts in the winter were crazy, and not in the fun you want to hang out with them kind of way either. I mean the type of crazy where you don’t let your kids talk to them because they might convince them that the world is flat.

So needless to say, legwarmers have been a part of my life since i was single digit age. I have a pair from my Mom that are the perfect long, black, snug legwarmers from the 70’s that you just can’t buy anymore and while i love them i know that i should not wear them everyday. Thus entered some super cute camouflage leg warmers two years ago. These have been a fantastic addition to my wardrobe and have weathered many parts of the US and Europe during their time, but they just don’t look fantastic with everything so they need a buddy to help split the load with during these cold dark times.

The pattern is from the same set as the camo set, but instead i decided to go super plain with the basic stockinette stitch with a color changing yarn. They are coming along super fast with nearly 50% of the knitting done in just 3 days of part time knitting!

House Week 29: Let the Tile Begin!

2010-12-12T10:06:00.001-08:00

Some progress was made this week despite the attempts of Mother Nature to yet again literally rain on my parade. Even though it’s not that cold here in the Easy Bay, living less than a mile from the bay coupled with all of our rain has made the air completely thick with moisture. So thick that another episode of “i can’t believe it, this stuff won’t dry” is occurring in my house (see previous drywall adventures). I feel bad for these guys like i should have warned them about my family curse that all things must take twice (or more) time than usual. Oh well, it sure is helping me to build a high tolerance for patience!

Last week they “floated” the floor and this week began working on the walls. Why do i want my floor to float you ask? It’s period appropriate for the house (my logic). It is extremely solid increasing the stability of the floor while allowing for give to help reduce the pressure directly on the tiles to reduce tiles cracking under the weight of things like a 400 lb bathtub full of water and a human body (Dad’s logic). The list goes on, but those are the basics. Floating is not as common as it used to be 25+ years ago as home owners look to cut costs reducing both duration of the project as well as materials, also new technologies developed over the last 10~ years can offer the same type of moisture protection between the tile and sub floor that previously was only obtainable with a mortar bed and with other layers. Also newer flooring types have been introduced recently to simulate the floating step without having to lay the layers, allowing the floor tiles to move and shift with the life of the house, more common in engineered wood flooring that tile.

Floating consists of building up a base for the tile to sit on (Layers shown at the left). This is also where it comes important to remember all of those floor joists my father placed in my kitchen and bathroom (every 6” on center), which are to support not just the weight of my enormous bathtub but also all of the layers to build up the floor for the tile. We also placed the plywood floor throughout the house so the tile guys start with the membrane layer which adds protection to the subfloor (plywood) from moisture. It’s amazing to me how much of building is trying to prevent moisture/mold! Okie, next layer is usually a hexagon wire “chicken wire” to give the mortar bed something to grip. Mortar is then spread over the entire floor using some “floating strips” as guides for to keep the bed a consistent depth. Strips are removed and filled in with the mortar compound and a bonding coat is placed over the entire floor for the tile to sit on top of.

Once the surface is completely floated and dried then they get to actually lay the tile, which by now is easy as you have a completely level surface to work on. We have actually made it this far on the floor, but the moisture filled air is really holding up the walls. They told me the compound was actually FALLING off of the walls! Crazy! Below is a picture of the floor “set”, which is to say glued to the base coat but not grouted and set permanently yet. This weekend i get to mark off the daisies and borders which i guess they will go back and “pop-out” the white tiles to replace them with the navy?

It’s looking so fantastic, i can’t wait to move in!!!!

House Side Note: Nifty info about Tile

2010-12-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

As i finally get close to having the “construction” work completed on the house i realized that there are TONS of other things i had always hoped to post about someday, thus the Side Notes. I am going to make a *real* effort to get one of these out a week to help pass along all of these great facts and businesses that i have found along the home improvement journey. Let’s start with Tile!

When designing the entire house the goal was to re-instill the home’s original feel from 1921 when it was first built. I researched 1920’s kitchen and bathrooms for weeks, there are so many beautiful designs out there from original catalogs to renovated and restored originals. One item i quickly feel in love with was the 1” un-glazed hexagon tiles that were used on the bathroom floors, especially when paired in a daisy shape (see link for example of style). Of course this all started out with thinking i needed a black and while bathroom; which would have been very period, but also very bright with contrast. Surprisingly these tiles are not common. I searched online, visited tile shops, and spoke with Tile installers all with minimal (white only and ridiculously expensive) luck until i found an awesome tile installation company – Bay Works Tile. Even before we signed a contact he passed along a couple of tile companies that sold what he thought i was looking for and i found them!!!

While pouring through the website for DalTile i stumbled across their Color body Porcelain line of Keystone Shapes containing a small hexagon shape and completely un-glazed, beautiful! I decided to go with a soft navy blue, also pretty period in the same group as the sea foam green and rose pink, but something i’ll actually enjoy for awhile. I decided to keep the base a barely off white to help reduce the cleaning frequencies required of a while floor. Here are the tiles i went with my feets thrown in for a bit of scale.

Floor (Border and Daisy Pattern Along Outer Edge):

1-5/16” Hexagons – Biscuit (D317)
1-5/16” Hexagons – Navy (D189)

Shower Pan Ridge and Shower Walls (Bick “Offset”:

3/4” Edge Rounds – Biscuit (D317)
3” Squares – Biscuit (D317)

Shower Floor (Daisy Pattern Along Outer Edge):

1-5/16” Hexagons – Biscuit (D317)
1-5/16” Hexagons – Navy (D189)

It’s fascinating how they prep the tiles for the installers using glues and paper tapes. All of the tiles came on some type of pre-spaced setup which drastically reduces the time to set all of these little tiny tiles. The hexagon and 3” square tiles tiles were “glued” (as shown below) along one direction of the spacing. The corner rounds that run along the edge of the shower pan are on super nifty paper strips. It’s amazing what technology is doing for all of the non-techie industries. Unfortunately they will have to set some of the tiles manually to achieve the daisy pattern, but nothing as crazy as the entire 10’ x 10’ floor.

House Week 28: Shower “Foundations”

2010-12-03T15:02:00.001-08:00

One thing about owning a house you never stop learning new things. The new thing this week has been about the foundation items for a stand in shower. It’s amazing how many thing you have to plan in advance for one of these things! Luckily there have only been two things we’ve had to “go back and fix”; which given my track record is an all time low.

The first thing you may notice in the picture to the left is the hole in the wall where the shower head will one day be? Well that was one we just plumb forgot, which working full time on a house and work will cause in live. The original pipe was not threaded on the end so we had to have someone come in and replace it so we *would* someday be able to install the shower head. Catastrophe? Nah, easy solve as the stupendous Tile guy of course knew a plumber he called and had over that same morning…yea!!!

Hector, the tile guy (Bay Works Tile), has been awesome the entire time helping me think about “down the road” and not “just right now” asking tons of great questions to help me plot away. The most recent was if i was going to put in a frameless shower door, a resounding yes i replied, to which he asked if my framers put the appropriate studs in the walls to support it. Ummm…no, since i hadn’t through that far in advance. Here is where something completely crazy happened, the exact place where i wanted the shower door to sit was on an existing stud in the wall, so i didn’t need to do anything.

Luck? Me? I was shocked when we walked through everything and sure enough it was right there without even planning it.First fantastically smooth drywall and now a shower pan that looks like it was designed to be there from the start? Maybe things are finally turning around for me and my doomed house? I’ll take it ; )

The shower pan ended up even being a standard size, 4’ x 3’, so it should be easy when i go to get glass doors. Also it feels like the perfect size in the bathroom. It is definitely a single person shower, but for a gal of 5’5” it’s going to be plenty. I am also excited that it’s not taking over the bathroom. I really wanted the focal points to be the tub and amazing porcelain pedestal sink instead of the modern shower, so far so good.

Here are links to the bathtub that is currently lost deep in some warehouse, and the porcelain sink hanging out in my living room patiently awaiting me moving.

It’s full of water for the inspection today, wish me luck!

House Week 27: What i am Thankful For

2010-12-01T23:17:00.001-08:00

Last week contained an American Holiday called Thanksgiving, maybe you have heard of it? Well while most people were getting to lounge around on their day off we were hard at work on the siding, again. I am beginning to wonder if it will ever be finished. I guess it has to end eventually, all things do, but right now it sure doesn’t feel like it. We did make some great progress on the back of the house finishing up the side walls towards the back and getting a good start on the back bedroom walls with the French Doors which felt good.

I am also very thankful for nearly finished Drywall. Apparently with the cold spell that we are having here in the Bay the mud for the drywall just wasn’t drying. Everyday we would show up at the house and the windows would be full of dew inside like some one had taken the steamiest shower ever right next to them…and that’s just weird in the laundry room. After days of opening all things possible we were finally able to get enough air flow through for the drywall to fully set. As we went through the house for the final walkthrough we only found a couple of spots that were not straight and the guys will (hopefully) be coming back to finish those next week. It’s amazing how much difference the walls make. It’s really starting to come together!

Something that isn’t my house | Nile River Blanket Update

2010-11-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

I always seem to have at least one blanket on the needles at a time. For the last year it has been the Nile River Ripple Blanket. Using Yarn i purchased at Stitches west two years ago while helping out Tactile in their booth for the fantastic color along with a plain old black from the craft store the blanket has a super nice hand feel from the colored nice yarn, and great shape/warmth from the cheap craft store yarn.

I am about 80% complete and this is totally my favorite point, where you get the warmth of the “blanket” on your lap while you knit on these beautifully dark and stormy weekends.

House Week 26: Putting Things Back in Their Place

2010-11-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Before the Taping and Mudding of the Drywall was a mad dash Veterans Day Long Weekend race to set as much siding as possible. The goal was to power through as much as possible of the siding to ensure that we don’t crack my brand new drywall. Awesome progress was made and in just over three days we finished most of the long walls of my home! This did mean working by large lights as it was nearly pitch black each night when we quit, but it doesn’t look to bad in the daylight. Actually i am super impressed with how much i LOVE my siding. I know it’s what the house had before, but i think i had forgotten just how much character it gives to house. Also it’s like putting an outfit on an androgynous paper doll, it just help everything make sense.

So the way this whole siding thing works is in lots of different steps, that all seem to involve painting. The process has been something along the lines of this…

Buy/Receive Siding
Paint Back of Siding x2
Cut Siding to appropriate length
Paint Top and Edges of Siding x2
Use Nail Gun (with mind of it’s own) to Set Siding to House
Paint Overlap Area of Siding as fast a possible before father decides to put up other piece over the top of you x2
Paint everything that is visible for a Third Coat
Paint everything that is visible with different kind of pain to ensure it doesn’t Mold x2

Rinse and Repeat. Needless to say I’m tiered of painting. Unfortunately i decided i was tired when the earth decided it was time to rain so i got to paint on a ladder in the rain, oh the joy how i just i could put it into words. Well it sucked, but at least i now get to lie in bed for an entire weekend while it rains and attempt to combat the cold that is threatening to destroy me.

Another push will occur in week 28 over Thanksgiving. Yep, we know hw to celebrate all the holidays here in my family ; ) Below are the parents hard at work while i was between paint cans. More outside pictures when everything is a bit more dry.

House Week 25: Completely Screwed Drywall

2010-11-19T22:38:00.001-08:00

It finally starting to look like a house!!! Week 25 brought the beginnings of real walls back into my house as the drywall was screwed onto the walls. It’s amazing how much things change not being able to see through the walls anymore.

Drywall has been a long and painful road for me. Six plus months ago i went through the rounds looking for a drywall guy. I came across JR Drywall online and when he came out to give me a bid he was super nice. As time went on i checked in with him letting him know in the summer that we were getting close (ever the optimist) and asked if he could come out so we could go through things once more just to be sure. When he arrived at my house i immediately knew something was wrong as he was very short and stand off-ish. First it was that i didn’t understand drywall and had lied to him about the size of the house, this after i had given him floor plans and walked with him on the job site prior to the initial estimate. Next it was why did i think i deserved a level five smooth finish, did i think i was some one special, well of course i do, but more importantly … i’m paying for it. All in all i was quite happy to see him rip up the contract and walk away … but it left me without anyone to drywall my house which was nerve wracking.

* Front Bedroom, Dining Room Door to Living Room, Living Room Wall with Casement Windows*

I was back to square one, so i turned yet again to my trusty friend the internet to guide me to another drywall company. And it did! After speaking with a couple of companies and getting few estimates i decided to go with Barbero Drywall, and after seeing their work i am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. The Drywall was screwed on for the entire house in just under two days!!! Next comes the Tape, Mud, and Smooth Finish.

* Kitchen, Bathroom Shower Corner, Hall to Back Bedroom*

Not only were they patient while i actually got everything ready and signed off for the drywall but they have also been extremely clean, helpful, and have done a fantastic job. Screws at the proper spacing or better, beautifully taped corners at the windows/doors, and they even helped me move the light cans in the bathroom after the last contractor had set them to far from the sink. Out of all of the contractors i have worked with on this project so far i would have to recommend Barbero Drywall the most based on the honesty, reliability, and outstanding quality of work. It’s nice to know that not *all* contractors are out get everyone.

House Week 24: Entry Doors

2010-11-11T22:05:00.001-08:00

First off … doors!!! I finally managed to get the entry doors back with them installed into their brand new jambs from the company i hired to do the work. I say finally as it took five weeks to get the front, back, and bedroom French doors from them with 4 pieces of wood around them. Suffice it to say I was more than disappointed.

I had originally hired the company, Wooden Window, to “remake” the original windows for the front of the house in the Front Bedroom as they were completely rotted out from being stored under the house for many a year. It took about two weeks to finally get the person who the owner said “so and so will contact you tomorrow”. I guess that should have been a sign, but them seemed nice so on i went. Nice they were … some of the time, and the windows i got do look exactly like the ones that they were replacing, just in brand new condition. The windows were actually not bad, they were just ridiculously slow. Below are the original windows that are in the living room front wall which are still in fantastic shape so luckily they did not have to be replaced.

The real problems started with the doors. So a bit ‘o back story. I really wanted doors for the house that would have actually been in the house back in the 20’s or 30’s instead of new hollow doors with plastic all over them. I just wanted everything to actually look like it belonged once i get everything together. I found both my back door and French doors at Urban Ore and picked out a beautiful front door at Ohmega Salvage which means i found doors without jambs, hinges, or any kind of weather stripping. Apparently putting these things on can be a bit of a pain and we have been so crunched for time i decided to ask my new friends at Wooden Window if i could order the Jambs through them, of course they said through email with a smile.

The problems began when they said six weeks to make the three jambs which is insane. I had been at their shop and they barely had anything going on or staged, lame! Oh well, no judging so i just asked to please get it done as soon as possible as it was the only remaining thing for me to be able to get drywall, no problem i hear. Well weeks of back and forth and finally they are ready and delivered (which is drama i’ll save for another day). Having the doors in the jambs we set to installing them thinking one day max for all three. Eight hours later we haven’t even finished the front door as the door was tweaked on the hinges and when closed stuff out a 1/2” at the top and was recessed in the jamb nearly the same amount at the bottom. Seriously lame. We moved on to the back door and set it in just under three hours which was acceptable. When i called my rep at Wooden Window they didn’t answer, and it took two days to get an email reply even, you’d think they want to follow up on their work. The story ends with a bitter gal who spent two hours on a Saturday in the rain listening the to owner try to tell us that it wasn’t there fault while he played with jabbing push pins into my new door jams.

Above are the back door and the French doors installed into their openings after about eight hours or tweaking from my family to fix the oversights of Wooden Window. It’s better, well 50% better which is more than it was when they first delivered it, so i’ll take it. I am trying to roll with it and treat it as “character” for the house instead of a massive reflection of the poor quality and communication of the company … it’s not working.
On a happier note i now have locks for the Front and Back doors that are beautiful and arrived exactly when Belmont Hardware said they would. Belmont Hardware is a place i would completely recommend as their customer service was great, they called when they said they would, and gave me a discount since my father is an engineer! I will definitely be going back. I would take pictures of the locks, but they look weird not installed so instead i will regurgitate images from the internet for you imaginative pleasures.

Below is the Front Door entry set by Baldwin the “Richland”. I really loved the brass inserts at the top and bottom, super Arts and Crafts!

Below is the Back Door entry set also by Baldwin (they make good stuff!) the Baltimore. This caught my eye for it’s utilitarian style for the back of the house where there is already going to be so much going on with the lemon tree, deck, stairs, and the French doors.

House Week 23: A Siding Trial Run

2010-11-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

As we finish up things on the inside it has finally come time to start working on some of outside items…like siding! This may be more existing for me than siding has ever been for anyone in the history of the world, but you need the background…

When i first saw my house it was covered in siding, the beautiful siding from the 20’s with a 2 1/2” reveal, but it had not been loved over the years and the paint was cracking in a ton of places. One of the many things that nearly disqualified the house from being obtainable with a loan was the cracking paint as it could have lead and would need to be tested. Apparently there is a loop hole somewhere as after a few hours of my brother helping me to sand and paint over the cracks leaving the house looking like a chickenpox patient it was considered a-ok! Below is how the house looked from the East Wall when i purchased it back in February ‘10.

Well even through the physical siding itself was mostly good, there was a ton of mold and moss growing on the siding, all indicating that it was down hill from here. This meant that the siding was going along with the lath and plaster walls when everything was demo’d. i knew it was for the best, but it was still sad to see it go. Stage One for replacing the siding was to order *new* beautiful redwood siding, which was done and delivered in June. At the end of June we had a family painting party to paint the back sides, with TWO coats, of each and every single piece of siding…over 5,000 sq feet. This was when i blew through three paint sprayers in three days discovering how fast i could destroy a $600 piece of machinery.

All in all it’s pretty impressive to see siding pop-up back at week 23 as it means we have finally reached a point where we can begin work on the outside of the house and to hang the siding! We had a day to play around with the new siding gun that makes everything go MUCH faster than a hammer and nails the old fashioned way. To keep the look we are mitering each of the corners of the siding instead of adding a trim for them to die into. This is more common on houses that have bay windows where you would not want to add all of the trim as it would look busy, but we felt it really added a cleaner look to the house, and heck…we have to cut the pieces anyways. What’s one cut diagonally instead of straight when you can set the saw and it will stay.

Well we finished about the same amount (as shown below) on both the east and west walls of the house. If this is any indication of the time that will be required i think it will go up in just a few days once we get the trim around the windows and doors finished.

House Week 22: The Ceilings were Jealous

2010-11-08T07:53:00.000-08:00

After a week of installing my denim walls it was time to move onto the ceiling. This was a ridiculously painful process. Wait, i take that back. It wasn’t painful to put the insulation in the ceiling between the trusses, it was painful to repeatedly put it back after it would fall out.

Something about me and the cotton insulation in the ceilings did not jive very well. The walls would stay put until mom or dad decided to bang on the walls, when then understandably the insulation would promptly fall out and onto the floor leaving a new pile of cotton “dust” on the floor. Unfortunately the ceiling insulation was all put in before we had finished the framing “adjustments” so that we could pass the inspection and get moving with the drywall soon. This meant that after the two days of installing the insulation i spent another two days putting it back it after the framing updates. Lesson learned, *WAIT* and do things in order if you only want to do them once.

One helpful item for helping to coheres the insulation into staying put were the same “wires” that we used on the floor insulation to hold it in place. Luckily the wires come in both 16” and 24” widths as the trusses were mostly at 22” on center. I started with no wires, but found a couple of places where nothing would stay up alone, so out came the leftover wires from the floor. After the mass exodus during some pounding from my father i decided each and every piece that fell out was getting wired. By the end of things nearly two thirds of the pieces had some wire reinforcement to help keep them inline.

Regardless i still loved the Bonded Logic Ultra Touch. Nothing beats being able to handle insulation with your bare hands wearing only a dust mask to keep the cotton out of your nose (the other lessoned learned after a day of blue snot).

The below picture is from the Bonded Logic website, i love how much those kids are enjoying their super cuddly insulation!

House Week 21: Recycled Denim for the Walls

2010-11-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

Progress with the domicile has continued over the last few weeks so i thought i would catch everyone up over a few posts to break up all of the excitement. Which it *is* super exciting, as usually silence means the person is too busy doing to be telling, which is totally true in my case. So sit back and enjoy the catch-up slam this week :)

One thing my home would not have had in the 20’s is insulation. Now this is a good and bad thing. One nice thing about not having had insulation before would have made the demolition of my house back at week one much faster and less messy. Well unfortunately I had insulation, and had even paid to have it “blown-in” prior to being allowed to buy the house. So sadly that all went straight into the trash as it was completely unusable, lame government laws at work again. Well moving on there really are not any other pro’s to not having insulation in your home. Some of the main benefits:

A “Temperate” Living Space – By insulating your exterior walls (floors and ceilings too), you drastically improve your home’s ability to retain a stable moderate temperature and help to reduce the loss of heating and cooling that used to escape through the walls. Thus also reducing your heating/cooling bills.
Not hearing your neighbors – Most insulation will also act a basic noise reducing agent, with the heavier insulations truly providing noise elimination between rooms and protecting your home from the outside world. This may not be as critical between rooms for a gal that plans to live alone for awhile, but it an awesome must for someone that wants to study the cello and has neighbors that go to bed at 7pm.

While there are many kinds of insulation i wanted to try to stay as green as possible while (re)building my home which has been a super challenge with my Father who loves hazardous materials and disposable items. So months ago i set off to find the right insulation for me. I had heard about recycled cotton insulation made from Denim scraps but had not seen it. I found a manufacturer, Bonded Logic, that produced all of the different “R” ratings (thickness of the insulation) that were required for my walls and ceilings and placed an order excited that i had avoided the super scratchy glass insulation typically used.

Below is the first delivery (1 of 3) of the Wall insulation from Ashby Lumber along with some insulation “relaxing”. My little 1200 sq ft home required tons of insulation as we decided to insulate the interior walls as well for additional sound and climate control.

Part of the instructions is to “gently shake” the insulation as you remove it from the bags to help it regain it’s shape. I found it was tons easier to leave it out on the floor over night before using it to really get it to pop back to it’s shape so it was pressure fit between the wall studs. One of the best things was being able to “rip” the insulation as needed to shorten a piece, cut out for an electrical box, and to pull off pieces to fit in between all of my tiny studs all over the place.

The total project of getting all of the wall insulation up took about 30 hours. Not bad for one gal and i camping light! Below are some additionally finished walls along with one of the fun to insulate walls from the original framing of the home where they used diagonal blocking. It’s beautiful, but completely annoying to insulate so i can see why it’s changed to horizontal blocking since the 20’s.

House Week 18, 19, and 20: Lightening the Load, a Solid Footing, and Lots of little Plastic bits

2010-09-28T00:23:00.001-07:00

We are moving right along. Apparently moving along so well in fact that fate decided we should slow down. Last Sunday morning i arrived at the crime scene (= my house) to find that someone had decided we had too many power tools so they would help us out by taking them away for us at no charge! They were so considerate that they even did it at night so that we would not have to be bothered moving all of those silly boxes around when we were ready to start the work day. Damn those frelling bastards! I mean, really? Steal from the girl who is completely broke and has owned a house for seven months that she still can’t live in? That’s just mean!

Well said jerks took all of Dad’s power tools, the paint sprayer, and the gas powered generator that all of the tools run off of so needless to say Sunday wasn’t very productive once the police left. I was impressed with the Berkeley Police department; they actually dusted for finger prints! I mean wow, it’s not like i lost 10K worth of stuff. Also they were nice, friendly, and even helpful. Also i got to meet my “beat cop”. I guess he drives around my neighborhood 4 nights a week. It’s always nice to get to be on good terms with the local law enforcement; makes those “the music is too loud at 4am” interactions so much smoother.

Once the important tools were replaced work proceeded. Actually a lot of work proceeded. Mom was up for the weekend and managed to strip 8 layers of paint off of the original window jamb for the living room. It’s amazing what that woman can do with paint remover. We also managed to get a lot of odds and ends wrapped up that had been lingering. Things like corrections to the vent piping for the bathroom and adding missing electrical wires rounded out the weekend.

Last Tuesday i braved an inspection all by myself! Yea! I even understood 99% of what the corrections were from the inspector. I am truly filling my head with building knowledge, wonder how long i will retain it? Well the corrections were what this weekend was spent fixing. Two basic items: a) “Nail” the floor, apparently 3,000 screws are not going to hold it in place during an earthquake; b) “Make up” the electrical boxes. This means put all of the appropriate wires together for each box, which “appropriate” changes depending upon the type of switch/outlet/and interaction location. Lots of referring to the pretty pictures for how this stuff is supposed to go together.

Floor Nailing – Now while this is actually a fairly easy and straight forward task when you have a framing nail gun this is a time consuming pain if you have different ages and dryness of wood that you will be shooting the nails into. The newer non dry wood doesn’t readily take the nails as well as the original wood for the house, and since i have to have the nails at the surface of the floor as best as possible this means setting the nail gun at it’s minimum penetrating depth so i don’t occasionally go through the floor. Also this means that about 50% of the nails placed in the floor using the gun will not drive fully into the wood so they must be gone back over with a hammer. So one room is about 30 minutes nailing and an hour hammering. This floor is never going a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e!!!

Piggy Tails! I am really enjoying the electrical wiring. I get to strip wires (easy and painless), follow different diagrams for different parts and trouble shoot the best way to get everything connected for the proper hot flow, and i get to stick little plastic holdy bits onto the wires to complete circuits. Here are some examples of my electrical fantasticness. This week i get to figure out the remaining 3-way lights, smoke alarms, and my doorbell!

Daydreaming about Plants

2010-09-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

So i buy this house so that i can reap the benefits of being a home owner. Things like determining what color of house i want to live in, when *i* want to mow the lawn, and what i get to plant on my land … right? Well someday. While i am still in progress of re-building the house part the garden part has had to go on hold. Which is mildly driving me insane. I was super excited that i was going to be in my house for the summer so i could start one of the awesome vegetable gardens i see on all my friends blogs, but it’s September and i’, still in a duplex. Oh well, the time will come and so i’ve decided to get prepared!
I love the East Bay Nursery! The staff is knowledge, silly, and super helpful. I took one leaf from a tree that is in my new backyard to try and find out what i am inheriting. After two people rubbed, sniffed, and poked the single leaf i was informed it was a walnut and given 15 minutes of do’s and don’t about walnuts in the bay area … awesome! Since this is currently as close as i can get to the level of Disneyland bliss within 10 minutes of my home many a Friday afternoon have been spent wandering the aisles thinking about what the grounds of my home really need.
So far here are the highlights:

Herb Garden
Apple Tree
Berries
Grapes
Bamboo
Veggies, Veggies, Veggies

After a few trips i think i have most of the basics figured out. Staples like what to put on the front of the house under the bedroom windows (Rhododendrons) and can there be too many kinds of mint (no!) have been quick to answer mostly due to the beautiful selection of plants available at the nursery. Also Google Maps has been super helpful to allow me to get an aerial view of my home that i was able to drop into illustrator and play around with “what goes where”. More on the layout in the coming weeks as things get more solidified.
Here are a couple of the different items i found while being lost in the nursery that could be totally awesome to look at on a re-occurring basis around my home…

Grasses

Flowers

Slightly Uprights

I originally only had Blueberries in mind but it could be pretty awesome to grow my own Goji berries…

House Week 16 & 17: Something you can stand on

2010-09-10T21:00:00.001-07:00

Yep, the last two weeks of house-ness have been weekends only and yet somehow tons of progress has been made! Week 16 was marathon insulation week. The first batch of floor insulation we brought home and worked our way through before the end of the first weekend. The rest of the floor insulation was delivered last Friday. This stuff takes up TONS of space. Below is about a third of the 2/3’s that was delivered. This stuff is spun lava rocks, crazy the “green” things you can find today. Supposedly it will never catch fire or hold moisture, not bad!

I spent two days doing nothing but placing small metal wires between floor joints, cutting insulation the correct width/length, and placing it in the floor. Oddly it was one of the most meditative things i’ve done all year AND i really enjoyed myself. Well … i had fun until i got home that night and discovered i am allergic to the insulation and had rashes up my forearms.

The parental units arrived last Saturday morning to help give me some grounding … i got (most) of my floor! Well kinda floor, i now have the plywood that makes up my subfloor through most of the house so there should be less falling through the floor occurring.

There is something to be said about the joys of having a floor on a raised foundation home, especially when you have been without one for nearly six months. The old saying that you only truly appreciate what you have once it’s gone rings so true here, who knew how much i could love plywood : )

Week 18 Goals are to finish the electrical, go back to stripping (paint!), and to finish the remaining few messes from the contractors.

House Week 14 & 15: How can people charge so much and do so little?

2010-08-30T22:16:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone for checking in to make sure that i’m not dead or in jail. After the last month of crazy house drama i’m pretty impressed i can say no to both of those. I have limited the drama in the previous posts, but for an update for the weeks 14 & 25 of the Jones Evolution project there is nothing but scenes reminiscent of Days of Lives if they ever produced a construction special…

I was finally coming to terms with the fact that my contractor was an idiot and was not coming back to the job site. Yep, he just walked away and didn’t even turn back to ask for his final check. This is just dumb as he can lose his contractors license for abandoning a job site when we probably had another 2 weeks of work left and then he would have been done. Oh well right? Move on to bigger and more trust worthy people.

Queue the enlisting the help of a general repair man that has been working with my father on his house in So Cal laying floors, installing windows, etc for years. We all decided to bring him and a another gentleman up north for a couple of weeks to get things finished up where the contractor left off. This was the perfect solution as we knew we could trust him as he has worked for my dad for years!

Damn were we wrong. First he lied to us about what the inspectors and previous job workers had said while on the site starting email chains and awuful confrontations with everyone involved trying to find the truth. Second he refused to shop at local stores where we are currently receiving volume discounts since we are basically rebuilding my house and would only shop at a home improvement store that has home in the title leading to large amount of wasted money going to big businesses that won’t even take all the crap he bought back so i’m stuck trying to find a use for things like $500 worth of extra plumbing supplies that were purchased for absolutely no reason. Third he was slow, beyond slow, snails move faster than this guy when we weren’t watching him.

Final straw was when he decided to walk off the job site with only a “i’m going home” to my mother on the way out Saturday morning. Blessing in disguise as now we didn’t have to fire him, lame because the guy is a 60 year old child that walked away because when he told me to do something i said that i thought something else needed to be done first so i was going to check with my dad to confirm. Why is it that so many contractors and guys in the construction business have such a hard time working with women? Lame!

Well we did finally get passed a couple of inspections regarding the electrical and plumbing that is under the floor so week 16 will have pictures and progress!!! The moral of all of this seems to be turning out to be something that all of those years watching the X-Files i should know by now … “Trust No One”. A fantastic discovery that I can in fact run wiring, install insulation, lay plywood sub floors, read building plans, and so much more. AND that my family and friends and beyond awesome, thank you everyone for all of the support keeping me going and hard work getting me there!

Week 16 soon, just need to get some pictures of my sea foam green floor insulation, and my FLOOR!!!

House Week 13: Wrapping it Up and Creative ways to use a Saw

2010-08-05T22:20:00.001-07:00

Last week marked a very important milestone for the house progress ... the Tyvek wrapping! The wrapping will now hold us accountable as it has a "cover me up by" date. Essentially the home wrap cannot be exposed to the elements of the weather for more then 3 weeks before being covered and getting onto it's main job of keeping moisture out of the house. The timeline should help keep us on it and aware of any further delays ... i may move in before Halloween!!!

Front | Back

Unfortunately the weekend also was the bearer of some bad news, the large window that weighs TONS arrived damaged. And i'm not talking a scratch, i'm talking about bubbles in between the two layers of glass where it looks like the film between the windows kind of melted. Crazy/scary stuff. At least we are on the road to recovery. This is the second time i've had to send this window back to Lowe's due to damage. Well i have a very small moment on the phone with a sweet woman and now Lowe's is going to re-order and install the window themselves. The window being damaged is annoying. The fact that they are going to completely take care of them doing this is AWESOME!!! I am beyond tired of the rude delivery guys from the third party delivery company and the ridiculously damaged windows that keep getting shipped, thus the awesom~ness of having this not on my to do list anymore.

We did make a lot of progress on my Dad's excuse to have purchased a bunch of fancy tools = the original front windows from 1921. Some background about the windows... The original windows for the home were in two different locations. The first was at the front of the house in the south wall of the Living Room. These windows were well protected as someone had enclosed the porch a bunch of years back essentially placing the windows inside the home. The second location was the discovery after i bought the home that underneath was a treasure trove of fun-tastic things, which just happened to include 4 additional original windows that we decided to re-install at the front of the house to give the home a real 1921 feel.

The original plan was to take the existing window frame to a woodworker and have a new one built. Well that didn't last long as it was a super enticing project for my father. He decided to take it on and 3 full days later we had most of the pieces ready to be assembled. To get this far we used a radial saw with a homemade wooden guide to help shape the sides and tons of different router bits at different base angles to get the rain splash angle of the sil perfect. While dad toiled away on the window mom and i went to work on the trim that goes around all of the windows around all of the windows. We cut it square using a "plane-er" (not sure of the spelling) and the router to give a nice suttle edge to the trim.

The original living room windows in their frame

Working on the trim for the new window frame | Working on the trim that will go around each of the windows with Mom

Also we are nearly finished with the electrical, plumbing, and gas renovations to the house. Unfortunately we did not pass all of the inspections on the first go-round, but we did learn a few things and now are done with the updates and awaiting the 8 inspections to move us along to the next phase. The electrical is a bit more complicated based on the preferences within the City of Berkeley. Below are good and bad pictures to show you just how crazy some of these inspections truly are.

Fail Inspection | Pass Inspection

Snapping Grey Turtle Skirt = Hexagon Math Goodness

2010-07-27T22:16:00.001-07:00

Between the fantastic trip to New York with Double Vision, a sad going away party for close friends, and the madness that continues to call itself my house i have been finding bits of time here and there to … knit! Not really much of a surprise as i have needed all of the relaxing and meditative activities that i could find to help keep me sane over the last few months, and weeks even more so. What have i been working on? Another skirt!!! I am super excited about this one as it is six hexagons knit from the outside into the middle using spaced decreases and four rows high. It's a math skirt!

Here is a picture of the Turtle skirt keeping a park bench in Central Park warm a few weeks ago. I am really enjoying the skirt as it is a fairly easy knit without a pattern to carry around, but it's not plain. I am not just knitting back and forth, back and forth. I am knitting hexagons that are 18 stitches wide on all sides to begin with and all of them end up as only a single stitch on the needles after all of the decreases. I love you geometry.

Now that i have finished nearly the top two rows of hexagons i decided it was time for some dress form testing. So far so good… I was pleasantly surprised that the skirt seems to fit. The hexagons are bubbling a bit in the centers, but nothing too weird that the blocking won't fix. I love the Star Skirt that i knit a few years back and am looking forward to having more hand knit items for day to day wear.

House Week 10, 11, 12: Roof = Light at the End of the Tunnel

2010-07-24T20:01:00.001-07:00

The last few weeks there has not been much progress made on the house between the problems with the contractor (who isn't even showing up anymore to complete work), me being in NYC with Double Vision, and all of the fantastic movies that i've seen so far this summer. While i've been gone the house moved along at a slow, but steady pace. We got the roof trusses onto the house which makes it actually start to look like a "house" again finally giving me a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Once the trusses were up sheets of plywood and these awesome little metal clips took over my roof. I guess the clips help hold the sheets of plywood together where they are spaced over the different trusses so that when we have a tornado that my roof isn't pulled off. Good to know in case tornado's pick up along the west coast ; )

At the beginning of week 12 i started getting actual shingles on the roof, see below. Looks like for the first time ever we are on track with a schedule and the roof may be finished by the end of the day on Sunday. I never thought back in February that it would take so long to do all of this, but i also had not idea what i was really getting myself into. I still can't believe the problems that we found with the house when we got the walls and floor pulled out; fire damage, cast iron chemical laden water pipes, and so many other just evil things i never would have guessed were even possible in a house that is only 90 years old. No matter how long and difficult the road i know that it will be worth it and i am starting to get SUPER excited!

Something about putting a roof on it makes it really feel like a house, not like a dream or some fantasy that is never going to come true. I am still short a bathroom sink as it was the last thing to be returned due to being "cracked in half". I never got to see it, but i was told it was pretty sad. A new one has been working it's way across the united states for the last week. I am hopeful that by the end of next week i will have all of my windows and exterior doors installed. My Dad is being a bit more optimistic and including most (he says all sometimes) of the new siding installed around the house. Once the siding is up ... drywall, tile, and move in party!!!

Inspiring Heat Wave

2010-06-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

I am more then over Global warming. What's up with the crazy weather? Doesn't Berkeley know it's not supposed to be 80 degrees here ... ever! While I bake in my house I've decided I don't have nearly the appropriate amount of skirts of this weather so I pulled out a favorite skirt, cute stash fabric, and grabbed the dress form to fix this dilemma. So far I have a grey cherry blossom fabric lined with a creme colored bamboo blend since the main fabric was kind of thin.

Progress so far has been to drape and French seam the body and lining, which are two yards a piece of a circle skirt style. I've started to play with a center back zipper and the shirring for the waist. I'm thinking a flat waistband to help keep the fullness under control at the waist

Below is how far it's come...

House Week 8 & 9: New Beginnings

2010-06-28T23:16:00.001-07:00

Over the last two weeks i have been more than waist deep in house. Last week was the second where my parents and i took a week off from our lives and busted through as much as possible with the house. For Mom and I this meant three FULL days of painting primer on to the back of the new siding for the house. Who knew that we could burn out the motors on airless paint sprayers so quickly : )

My father decided he wanted a partner this trip and brought up the handyman that has been working with him on projects for their house for the last few years. Together they got most of the electrical boxes wired, the water main replaced, most of the water piping placed/saudered, all of the gas mapped out and ready to go, and even a couple of windows in place! Not bad for losing four of the seven days to "mis-communication" between the contractor and reality.

We spent the weekend trying to get caught up with the framing and i'm excited to say all of the exterior walls are up. It looks tons bigger than before, which we only added 200 square feet so i guess it really is just the perception. I really love how the house is turning out and how patience my father has been with me about all of the silly details during each phase of the project.

Wk 8: Framing for the New Foundation

Wk 9: The new West Side of the House

Wk 9: View out of the back bedroom

Next week ... Pictures of the new faucets, sinks, toilet, and more!!!

A little bit of Spare Time

2010-06-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have managed to find ten minutes here and there over the last couple of weeks to work on a summer dress that's been kicking around since mid winter. Last night I was finally able to get past the basic setting of the facings, I hate facings. I wish everything just clean finished itself. Don't get me wrong...I understand their functional purpose...just hate edgestitching something that is only 2" wide. Oh well, it's nearly ready in time for my trip to NY! Here is the fabric, pics of the dress to come this week while it finally gets hemmed.

Things to do with Lemons: Lemon Poppyseed Bread

2010-06-18T21:51:00.001-07:00

A new breakfast favorite and super quick is ... Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

I have modified this from one of my favorite baking books "The Joy of Vegan Baking" swapping the blueberries with poppy seeds and a couple of other small changes. Don't get me wrong, blueberries rock! But poppy seeds are scrumptious and i have a small stock pile of them that i've been using this recipe to wind through.

I prefer Almond Milk when baking over other non dairy milks like soy or rice milk as it's thick. Much thicker and closer to the consistency of cows milk. Also if you buy it unsweetened it has as little as 35 calories a cup! Nearly a quarter of most milks and i find the flavor to be rich, yet not over powering. I have successfully made this recipe with rice milk with complete success as well. I recommended that you experiment and find what is the best for your cooking style and flavor palette.

This can be made either as a single loaf, 12 regular muffins, or 24 mini muffins. I lean towards the loaf and mini muffins to help with portion control, these are tasty and i have to watch i don't eat a batch in a night. Please note that the cooking times will vary depending upon what you decide to go with, here are some approximates:

a) loaf = 55 minutes @ 385F (somewhere between the 375 and 400 marks)
b) regular muffins = 25 minutes @ 400F
c) mini muffins = 22 minutes (check these often to ensure they don't burn) @ 400F

Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Zest of 2 lemons
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/8 cup of almond milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tbl white distiller vinegar
3/4 cup poppy seeds

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven based on the type of item you are making and lightly grease your pans. I use earth balance sticks and run them all over the inside of the pan or muffin trays.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl. (I recommend buying a micro-planer is you like lemons, it will save you hours on tasks like these)
3. In a separate bowl combine sugar, milk, oil, lemon extract, and vinegar.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and add the poppy seeds.
5. Pour into your pan of choice. If muffins only fill 2/3's of the way full as these grow!
6. Cook as per above chart. They are ready when an inserted toothpick come out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pans for 5 minutes to help the tops to not crack.
8. Remove from the pans and cool on wire racks
9. Enjoy!!!

House Week 7: Let's just cover her up a bit

2010-06-07T21:57:00.001-07:00

I love the rain, but it's getting between me and my house and it should know better! Unfortunately with all of the beautiful rain the construction on my house has slowed down a bit. Oh well, that did not stop us from getting started on the re-building of the house.

The last week was focused on three things a) getting out the old foundation, b) finishing the re-framing of the existing walls where necessary to allow for the electrical and plumbing to be started, and c) to get as much of the sheeting for the exterior walls up as possible While the contractor worked, we worked right along side on our own projects. It was a bit crowed at times, but i'm glad it worked out this way as my father the master engineer was able to put in more than his 2 cents on how things were going and was able to give guidance (and corrections where necessary) while he was in town. This house may be the only thing standing after the apocalypse with how sturdy it's being (re)built!

The parents came up for the week to power through some thing and over the weekend my brother showed up with reinforcements to help muscle our way through some of the basics, like the sheeting. It's been great how awesome everyone has been and how much help i am getting from everyone. This is a lot of work, and i know it's worth it, but it sure does feel better to not be doing it alone ... Thanks everyone!!!

We made good progress for how little we actually had to work with. Here's a list of our achievements:
1. Sheeting/Plywood up along all exterior walls...that are staying after the addition
2. All of the re-framing complete for the portions of the house that are staying (last minute decision to re-frame *most* of the interior walls was made on the job Wednesday morning)
3. All of the Electrical Socket boxes have been installed (no wiring) for the walls that are staying
4. Picked up my front and back doors from Omega Salvage and Urban Ore
5. Removed ALL of the paint from the Front door ... looks like i may be able to stain it instead of having to paint it, exciting!!!
6. Attached "strapping" along the tops and bottoms of the windows (this was my mother and i nailing over 1000 nails into metal strips up near the ceiling and down near the floor in about a day)
7. Called Lowe's about my windows at least 8 times...and they still aren't here ;p

Most of the windows i ordered are different then what the house had before ... but i think that is a good thing. Previously the windows were in weird places and either too big to too small. I was able to up/down grade as appropriate for the rooms and it totally made a difference. Here's a shot of the East Wall of the house from inside (no interior walls just yet).

With the existing walls back in place, window positions cut out, and doors moved where i wanted it's really starting to feel like the house i envisioned back in February. Here's a shot of what "will be" the view from my Dining Room once i move it ... i love my house!

Things to do with Lemons: Meyer Lemon Marmalade

2010-06-02T22:11:00.001-07:00

When life gives you lemons...can them? This seemed like a good idea the more i read about it. It appears that a couple of different Jams/Preserves/Marmalades can be cooked and then poured into the jars and will seal themselves. No setting wax or having to use special mixtures to get the goodies to stay fresh and tasty in the Jars for lemon marmalade. After finding a couple of recipes online i pulled out the basics and decided that i could do this!

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Ingredients: Equal parts of Water : Lemons : White Granulated Sugar
(6 cups a piece was very manageable and filled 6 half pint jars!)

Wash the lemons thoroughly. If you are using store bought lemons this is a super must as you need to get all of the wax off of them.
Cut up the Lemons. NOTE: Save all of the pieces that you are about to cut off as you will boil them all together to get as much pectin as possible).
First cut off the tips (Steam and base). Cut lemons in half from top to bottom. Next cut the lemon half into wedges cutting from the top to the bottom of the lemon about a 1/4" wide avoiding the white "stem" at the center of the lemon and removing all seeds. Finally cut the white "stem" off of the final piece and set aside along with tops and bottoms of lemons.
Place all of the extra clippings, seeds, and "stems" onto a cheesecloth and tie closed.
Last cut of the lemons chop the wedges into thirds width-wise so the lemon pieces are shaped like triangles
Bring Water, Lemons, and goodies in the cheesecloth in a Medium sized pot to a rolling boil and keep boiling for about 30 minutes, until the lemons are super soft. You can tie the cheesecloth to the handle of the pot to keep it from dragging to the bottom and getting lost. I found mine stayed towards the top/side on it's own so i skipped the tying.
Remove the pot from the heat. Remove the goodies bag from the pot and let cool
Once cool enough to hold squeeze the excess pectin from the bag into the lemon/water mixture. This will help the mixture set better with as much of the pectin in it as possible
While cooling place the canning jars on a cookie sheet withOUT lids, heat up the oven to 200F, and back the jars for 15 minutes to kill bacteria/germs.
Just before finishing the next step bring a tea kettle filled with water to a boil and a few minutes before the jelly is ready place the jar lids in a casserole dish, then pour the boiling water over the top to sterilize.
Add Sugar to pot with water/lemons and place back onto the stove. Bring to a boil and keep boiling for about 25 minutes and then begin frequently checking the mixture for the tell tale signs it's ready. I chose the Candy Thermometer method where once the mixture hits 220F-225F it's ready. There is also the "Finger Nail" Test which can be found here.
Remove the jelly from the heat
Using a ladle pour the jelly into the jars leaving 1/4" at the top for the jars to use during their sealing process. Most sites said that you need to do this fast, but i took about 10 minutes while trying to learn it for the first time and to not make a mess. I didn't have any problems, but it was depend upon how "done" the jelly is, so working fast here isn't a bad thing.
Wipe off any jelly that is on the lip of the jars
Cover with lids and screw on
Set aside and wait for the Jars to process the air inside sealing them shut. It's super fun to hear the jars pop-shut during the day, but i think it may have given me nightmare at night...it was kinda loud.
Lastly enjoy your Marmalade! Use it, Gift it, Sell it, do whatever you want with it...but make sure it gets used!!!

House Week 6: The Calm before the Storm

2010-05-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

I am enjoying a few minutes on my new front lawn while I wait for Plywood to magically appear that I need to inspect and sign for. It's been a good paced day leading up to the arrival of the parental units. Eariler today Urban Ore picked up the modern windows, doors, and toilet I will be replacing with perfect timing as I need the room for the plywood, in like 15 minutes. I also got an update that I will not be doing much baking in the new home until the fall. Unfortunately the beautiful stove is super backordered until then, but I'll survive.

Tomorrow marks day one of beginning to put the house ba k together. The plan is to start putting the exterior walls Saturday and pick up the front and back doors i have purchased from Urban Ore and Omega Salvage. Sunday will be more walls, as will Monday, and Tuesday ... you get the point.

Things to do with Lemons: Meet the Lemon Tree

2010-05-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is the first in a new "series" for me entitled "Things to do with Lemons". Some have tasted the magical lemons from the new house and others will soon. I have been "blessed" with a very productive Meyer Lemon Tree in my new backyard. While i may not be able to live in my house yet (see my naked house), this has not relieved me of Lemon duty. Each weekend since mid February i have been at the house mowing the lawn and picking lemons. Luckily the Lawn is down to a manageable length from it's original 20" - 30" height in front and back, the lemon tree is showing no signs of backing off it's 2 large shopping bags of ripe lemons a week. Each time i've been at the house in the last month there have been more and more flowers and little green baby lemons on the tree, it's pure madness.

With my drive to reduce waste and not throw away perfect good items, i have been motivated to do many things with my new found fountain of lemons and thought i could share my lemon journey so my friends can get inspired to find fantastic things to do with lemon themselves (remember that i have *more* than enough to share!). Also i would love to hear what *you* do with lemons or anything else growing in your yard. It is super rewarding to use foods that you grew yourself both in dishes for your family as well as things to take to work or parties. There is a magic to being able to say "I grew this".

Here is the beautiful Meyer Lemon Tree in all it's glory

House Week 4 & 5: Foundation and a Trim

2010-05-23T23:18:00.001-07:00

Weeks 4 and 5 were mostly spent digging and getting inspections for the new foundation. The "pads" have been dug and pored. I'm told these are the parts that sit at various positions under the house and will hold it up long term and while they knock out the old foundation to replace it. Also the outline for the addition has been dug out for the new foundation that i believe will be poured in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately i am at a super inspection heavy point in the process so things are moving a bit slower than i would prefer. But slow has not meant idle. Friday afternoon i was greeted by a non-leaking water spikit at the front of the house ... so i now have access to water all of the time ... yea!!! Also the "forest" of backyard with nearly four foot tall grass was on the list to be destroyed my moi this weekend. Best present of the week was seeing a beautifully and freshly weed-whacked yard that required no additional work from me. The trimmed yard looks huge!

Quick Sewing for a Baby Shower: Receiving Blankets

2010-05-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't use to be such a procrastinator. I swear! Christmas presents use to be started in June, i was 2 minutes early for meetings, and i knew where the hammer was at all times. Something since buying a house has put me on the late bus for the last few months, and unfortunately getting cute stuff for a friends baby shower was no different. Thursday afternoon i decided that a handmade gift was required for baby shower that was starting in 72 hours and proceeded to poke my brain for suggestions that would be quick, practical, and reasonably priced. Receiving blankets! What could be better than, medium sized blankets that are super washable? Nothing when you have about one hour to complete said handmade gift.

One of the reasons this gift only took 15 minutes to make was a beautifully dust covered item of mine ... the surger. If you are surger-less do not fear! This project could also be done using a single needle machine with a tight zig-zag stitch along the edge instead of the over-lock.

Receiving Blankets 101

Materials:

1 Yard of Light Weight Flannel, minimum width 36" (per blanket)
Thread for sewing along the cut edge
Scissors (for cutting said thread)
Paper (for curve template)
Radial cutter (could substitute scissors instead)

How to:

   1. Wash the fabric on hot. This is critical to remove as much shrinkage as possible and to ensure the fabric is de-linted as much as possible.
   2. Dry the fabric on hot. Same thinking as above with getting the shrinkage out.
   3. Cut out a square of fabric 36" x 36". Here you can substitute any measurements as desired for the blanket.
       If using a radial cutter it's best to pair it with a metal ruler.
       (NOTE: There is no Seam Allowance for the blanket as we will be sewing along the edge)

4. Cut a template for the curved corner out of paper by folding it in 8th's and cutting the folded corner off as shown below.
Or ... find an object to use as the shape of the corner and cut following the shape.

   5. Sew! If you have a serger, use it. This took me about 2 minutes per blanket (3 in less than 10 minutes!!!)
       If no serger pull out the good 'ole single needle machine with a zig-zag setting.
       Set the stitch width to max and the length to one of the smaller settings to get good coverage along the edge
       To start pick a side near a corner, but not too close. Since the seam overlap will be exposed we don't want to drag tons of attention to it.

6. Sew around the entire blanket edge following the shape of the blanket edge. Run over the beginning of the overlock (zig-zag) for approximately an inch before ending.
This will help reinforce the stitching and keep it from unraveling in the near future.

7. Clip the seams, fold up pretty, and gift away! I staked the blankets together and tied with a bow, skipping the wrapping paper 'cause they're cute!

Do i really want an evil poisonious tree in my backyard?

2010-05-21T23:33:00.001-07:00

I tasked myself with finding out what the oh so mysterious tree was in my new backyard. After a couple of trips to the nursery i was told i was the proud owner of a walnut tree! At first it sounded interesting, but as the conversation continued I was less excited. Learning about the evils of walnut trees, how nothing can grow around them because they are poisonous, how difficult it is it get to the walnuts even after they fall off the tree ... neither of these things were getting me to leap for joy. I am not convinced that i want the evil tree. If it's going to make my vegetable and fruit growing live miserable down the road it's got to go. It it wants to behave itself and not grow to much, then i think we could come to an understanding. I think i owe it a full year to show me it's intentions, i just bought the house and the tree has definitely been there longer than me, so it gets seniority.

I could use some help here garden experts. Do i keep it, get rid of it, or is there a magical medium ground in which we can share the backyard and live in peace?

Sylvar is DONE!!!

2010-05-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've finished my latest and definitely greatest sweater. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I did a lot of shaping to me work on the front and back panels and it fits of so fantastically! I can't wait to start the next major project ... the Turtle Skirt ... in between my crocheting of wash washers mania.

So far the sweater has been worn twice to work and i truly would be wearing it more if the weather didn't turn to sunny and 70's the minute i finished it. Sylvar is a perfect Berkeley sweater. It has a tons of breathe-ability with the open knit leafy design on the body and sleeves letting me get the perfect amount of air while out riding my bike around town and along the bay. The bands at the bottom and sleeve openings are just knit and purl opposite rows so it went super fast and they stay where they're put. So no soaked sleeves while washing the dishes!

Lastly it is a tank top sweater, meaning that it needs one of my 500 different tank tops to be worn under it thus giving me an excuse to put on a tank top in the middle of January or any time it's raining without feeling like a So Cal freak! I love my tank tops and can't wait to be able to cycle through them all year with the help of my new sweater.

House Week 3: Bare Bones

2010-05-11T20:55:00.001-07:00

So far i haven't lost my mind...though i do believe that it will all happen in due time. I have managed to lose all of the walls, ceiling, and floors in my house. Luckily all of this was done on purpose my father tells me. It is very exciting to finally be done with the removal phases and to be moving on to the beginning of building onto the bare bones of the house.

This week they will dig and pour the new foundation for the house that i've been told can withstand a 9.0 earthquake and support a second story if i ever build up the desired to go through a massive remodel ever again. Not much to show as we are finally down to just the studs in the walls and the team begins digging for the new foundation. Next week should have foundation pictures!

My Naked House from the Street

Some Neat Floor Bracing

Still intact Sunroom (i can't wait to get rid of)

Crochet to Kill Bacteria and Save the Planet

2010-05-08T01:49:00.001-07:00

Well maybe crochet can't save the entire planet, but there are a lot of little household items i'm being inspired to replace the disposable versions of with crocheted washable versions that won't ever have to see a landfill. The latest book from BookSwim i've been reading is Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck. This so far has been an awesome and straight forward read with lots of fantastic ideas to get anyone cleaning less with some easy preventative cleaning things and detailed walkthoughs on germs/bacteria and how/where they live. Who knew that even biodegradable sponges are perfect breeding grounds for bacteria.

In the book Sandbeck discusses using dish cloths instead of sponges when washing dishes, when done letting them dry and then putting them in the "to be washed" pile. The next load of dishes, move on to a new Dish Washer. Reading about the evil-ness of the sponge and it's bacteria farm type personality i thought about crochet, and how those little bits of left over cotton yarn could be put to a good use as Dish Washers!

So out came the Granny Squares Now book for inspiration and some basic patterns. I finished two Dish Washers this evening based on patterns: a) Five-Petal Flower (In Green/Yellow) and the b) Eight-Petal Flower. If i am going to switch over i figure i'll need at least one a day for seven to 10 days so that i don't have to run the laundry just to get a clean Dish Washer. Here are a couple of things the new dish washers will save me:

* money (no more buying sponges)
* time (no more going to the store to buy sponges)
* no waster (once not longer usable all 100% cotton items can be composted and saved from the landfills)

More to come on my new favorite book/reference manual

House Week 2: Who needs a roof anyways?

2010-05-02T22:55:00.001-07:00

The demo work is nearly done! They finished tearing out *all* of the kitchen and have moved up to the roof. It's pretty exciting to walk into your house and see the sun shining in through the ceiling.

I have begun Phase A: trying to remove the 6 to 8 layers of paint on the original windows (which will be put back in their rightful place at the front of the house) and original doors. The different layers of colors are amazing. Who knew that anyone had a turquoise colored exterior to their home four layers back (guessing the 70's?). Since the house was originally built back in 1921 i don't think anyone has "removed" paint prior to putting more on top. The paint "rings" seemed to go newest to oldest:

* White
* Beige
* Baby Blue
* Deep Red (so far only on the windows)
* Turquoise
* Off White
* Tan
* ???? [haven't conquered the tan yet...]

To help with the removal of the paint i knew i didn't want the super toxic standby, i wanted to use something that could be washed into the grass without it glowing in the dark. I found an awesome product that even smelled like oranges! Citristrip, and it actually worked! Today i layed out the bathroom room and a couple of windows to get going on my phase of removal. The Citristrip went on super easy and even...and came off nearly as easy. I found that leaving things in full sun for a couple of hours before getting to them the product dried and was more difficult to get off, but i just sprayed a bit of water onto the surface and was able to get it up super easy! I don't know if i'm enjoying stripping off paint, but i am super excited about being able to see all of the molding details on my windows once i get this all done.

Well, one side of one door and one side of two windows down. Only 14 sides of windows and 9 sides of doors to go!!!

Mend, Repair, Repeat

2010-04-30T21:35:00.001-07:00

I have finally caught up with 90% or so my my "life". Laundry clean, house not dirty, house things all caught up and in order, work back to it's old self, yoga being attended mostly, and cooking has even nuzzled it's way back into my routines. It's nice to feel like i have routines again. Well all of this being caught up~ness let me dive into the ever growing pile of items that needed to be mended.

I have a major problem getting rid of clothes i like. Basically if i want to wear it and always want to wear it and never have it die or become unwearable because i know i'll never find the exact same thing again. Sure, something close...but not the same. This evening was dedicated to relaxing while watching House (yea, i'm addicated), ripping out bad seams and sewing new seams and things back where they belong. Some interesting things made it into the pile:
* Button on a Back pocket of a pair of pants to be reattached
* Straps on a cami to be shorten
* Straps on a dress to be shorten (yes, i'm short...i get it!)
* Cami to have stupid elastic removed (it was just bad...)
* Solid Cotton Tights to have elastic waistband replaced (so they'll stay up for once)

In the pile that i'll coninute to pick at for the rest of the evening:
* (2 pairs) Hand knit socks to be patched/darned at the heels
* Hand knit sweater to be torn back to yarn (too wide to wear so it's dusty, my first sweater evar!)
* Elastic to be replaced on a Bra

The socks shouldn't be hard, but i'm glad there is only a first time for everything once. The sweater is for the best as if it fit i'd totally wear it, so i was like ... i can fix that! The bra is super sewing experiment #9856817XZ124. Basically I can't justify throwing away something that cost $150 just because the elastic is shot, so it means i am going to kinda take the whole thing apart? This could be a disaster, but at least i'll go down trying!

I have really enjoying the last month being at home and having time to do things like pick lemons and darn socks, life is good...

House Week 1: Demoloshing the Inside

2010-04-24T01:30:00.001-07:00

Work has finally begun on my house! It's super existing to see what's behind all of the walls. It's crazy to peek inside of the house, makes you wonder how it hasn't fallen down so far. There are places where the wall studs don't run the entire length of the wall, pipes that don't go anywhere, and lath and plaster on each and every wall. So far most of the walls are out and they are beginning to remove the cabinets and the fixtures in the bathroom. Here are some pictures from the house as it is tonight...so exciting!!!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Returning to normal and a Beautiful afternoon in the city

2010-04-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Two countries, a huge release at work, and a spring dance season later I'm glad to have been part of everything ... but am very much enjoying my first
weekend without any demands.

Hong Kong was amazing and someday I'll finish going through the photos and get them up on Flickr for all to enjoy. I don't think I was expecting all of the shopping that the culture seems to revolve around, but towards the end I found some fantastic out of way places to explore and discovered some interesting history.

Japan was...well, still japan. Not much seems to change expect for the handheld technology, bt even that felt like home as most of the Tokyo-ites had joined the dark side and were one with their iPhones. I think I may be a bit traveled out. I found that I was super unimpressed with nearly everything I saw expect the art museums, and even then only mixed media modern art. I don't think that the temples of the world have gotten any less amazing, but after seeing them in nearly ten countries over the last four years I think I could use a bit of a religious break.

Not like I can afford to travel anyways with all the crazy new house stuff. Yep, the house stuff has begun! Plans *mostly* approved and it looks like I'll be moving sometime May/June. I'll be looking for people to help with painting, interested?

Separate posts to follow about the stupendous, amazing, an georgeous outfits from Double Vision's spring season, hopefully coming to a New York stage near you soon.

With the beautiful weather I was reminded of last summer where I spent many weekends in new york enjoying Central Park and thought Golden Gate Park sounded like a perfect Sunday activity. Somehow I managed to get I to the city and parked along the park from home in less than 20 minutes, and yes there was traffic. Don't know how, but I'll take it! Cal Academy was fun and with no line I finally made it into the rainforest dome and got to explore. So many frogs! With a few hours of day left I strolled over to the Japaneae Tea Garden for some Cherry Blossom viewing. Since when are there any two cherry blossom trees here? I must have dreamt the ten plus I thought I saw here last time. Everything else was as remembered an fantastic. The wisteria smells amazing and the snaking ponds are a treat to walk though. I think the only think that's missing is an ice cream filled crepe, Japantown here I come!

Hong Kong Day 1: Planes, Trains, Fog, and Lanterns

2010-03-21T07:43:00.001-07:00

The 15 hour flight flew by. I slept about 5 hours of it here and there and am doing pretty good for my first day of time zone shock. Going to NY is nothing in comparison to traveling half way around the world and being on the exact opposite of your normal time zone. From the airport i made it to the airport express train super easily and walked right onto a bus to my hotel quickly and easily. All in all it only took an hour to get from the airport to my hotel and only a few minutes to check in.

Since i arrived and got settled so quick i went out for a bit of sight seeing this evening with the hope of catching the light show they have over the harbor each night. Well you could see some of the lazers and lights, but most wree hidden in the soupy and thick fog. While trying to squint out from of the lazer shapes with my glasses i noticed something much prettier and each to get to...The Lunar New Year Thematic Lantern Exhibition. Beautiful lanterns in everything from cranes to dragons to a phoenix and flowers. Here are some pictures from the the exhibition.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Catching up...homes, costumes, and a dash of travel

2010-03-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been packed to the brim rearranging my life, connecting with old friends, hand sewing costumes for Double Vision, and trying to prep for a work trip to Hong Kong in less than a week. Just a tad busy ; )

Well I'm on the plane and nearly to Hong Kong for my first time. I've managed to set aside 3 days for myself to wander around and take in some sights. There are not nearly as many Temples in Hong Kong as Tokyo, but it seems like there are more gardens and that the parka are open later (fingers crossed being open late also means safe). More to come as I explore!

Costumes? Yep, it that time of year again where Double Vision takes over the Dance Mission Theatre for a few nights of dance. Somehow I got the crazy idea that the costumes should all be hand sewn? I am truly insanse. Well 4 out of 5 complete, only one to go when I get back. Pictures and more a out the how's it's process another day.

Lastly, but definitly not the least crazy is my new role as home owner extrodinaer. The latest installement was played out at the city and involved another 3+ hour circle about from area to area to figure out just which approvals and permits I will need. There were a couple of hiccups in the zoning department that are going to change the original design a bit, but nothing too drastic or non pretty-making. Plans for the foundation work were approved!!! Now to demo all of the lath & plaster and Sheetrock walls to get access to replace all of the electrical and plumbing in the house. Brand new insides of my 1920's home here we come!

New Wrappings

2010-02-24T15:48:00.000-08:00

A new project has been started for the trip in New York. So far here is the progress from the plane ride out, that consisted a lot more of sleeping than knitting.

The pattern is a fun wrap stitch with an intermittent eyelet row thrown in for looks. This will require some blocking, which I've been getting tons of practice at this year and really loving the final products.

Silly Alarm Clocks

2010-02-08T00:08:00.001-08:00

Saturday included a mission with my brother who was looking for a specific alarm clock. The alarm clock hunt began at IKEA where he had seen said alarm clock about six months ago. After a fantastic IKEA Cafe lunch we scoured the store looking for the alarm clock. While we looked i learned more and more about the special item we were trying to find which was a vintage styled alarm clock with bells on top and was powered by being wound up...no batteries and loud as the Apocalypse. IKEA failed us and had no such thing, neither did anyone in the store have the slighest idea what we were talking about. Onto stop number two, Target, where we found some of the most hilarious alarm clocks ever after being sent to three different locations within the store (apparently there isn't an alarm clock section and they are in different spots all over the store...). We did manage to find an alarm clock with bells on the top that the brother deemed a decent temporary while the search for the wind up version continued.

Silly Alarm Clock #1 - "Warning: This alarm clock will wake you up!"

Silly Alarm Clock #2 - Solar Powered Alarm Clock? - Not for your friends in Alaska

Silly Alarm Clock #3 - The Bright and Colorful Arlarm Clock of Doom!!! Welcome back 1989 Cross Colors!

Alice's New Embroidery

2010-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

It's exciting to finally see some backlit Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland posters. Backlighting just about anything adds an air of magic and fantasty. Such is also the case when I saw the new Alice character poster this morning, a poster I see flat every day in the BART stations of my daily commute. Her shimmering blue dress has had my eye and today I got a good look at the bottom edge. Oh beautiful embroidery! It's fantastic how the costume designer managed to get the main themes of the film onto the dress, and in such a simple/elegant mannor. I have been eyeing the dress for a few weeks now admiring the lighty shirted lower ruffle and fantastic button front bodice...I want one! Also the shoes look pretty hot ; )

I'm not as fasinated yet by the Hatters costume, but in all fairness I haven't seen a backlit Mad Matter poster yet so there may still hope.

Things to keeping you sewing and out in the world over the next few months

2010-01-31T20:07:00.001-08:00

You'd think 2010 must be National Steampunk year will all of the events listed below. There are a number of other events going on too ... but i think they are all vampire or "dark" events. Dash of salt here people as i'm going to find, post, and discuss things i like so there should be no surprises with the below all being Vampires and Steampunk themed (i'm saving the Gilbert & Sullivan event for the next post as it's in September though i can't wait for an opportunity to dress up as pirate Ruth or sunny summer day Mabel and sing about animals, minerals, and major generals).

*most* descriptions direct from their respective websites. Please leave comments for any events i may have missed coming up through June. I will *try* to do this quarterly and help would be greatly appreciated.

Wonderland: A Tim Burton Ball aka Abney Park Show
Where: DNA Lounge SF, CA
When: Friday February 5th @ 7:30pm
What: Abney Park comes from an era that never was, but one that we wish had been. An era where airships waged war in the skies, and corsets and cummerbunds were proper adventuring attire. They've picked up their bad musical habits, scoundrelous musicians, and anachronistically hybridized instruments from dozens of locations and eras that they have visited in their travels and thrown them into one riotous dervish of a performance. Expect clockwork guitars, belly dancers, flintlock bassists, middleastern percussion, violent violin, and Tesla powered keyboards blazing in a post- apocalyptic, swashbuckling, Steampunk musical mayhem. Swing Goth is what happens when rock-a-billy meets goth, and is peppered with a little blues, waltzing and a healthy portion of dirty dancing... all to modern music.

le Mardi Gras des Vampires
Where: Masonic Lodge of San Mateo
When: Saturday, February 6th @ 8pm (dance lessons @ 7pm)
Who: Hosted by PEERS
What: New Orleans’ most amusing hosts, Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac, and their ward, Mlle. Claudia, invite you to a joyous Mardi Gras Ball in true Nineteenth century ante-bellum New Orleans style. Suggested attire is period costume, fantasy Mardi Gras costume, or a fanciful version of period costume century costume is especially fashionable for Mardi Gras but any earlier historical period costume works well, too). Modern evening dress is perfectly acceptable, however, and there is no dress code for the ball. To protect your reputation, masks are strongly recommended.

SF in SF Steampunk Movie Night | Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog - AND - Perfect Creature
Where: Emeryville, CA
When: Wednesday March 10th @ 6pm
What: Dr. Horrible...need i say more?

Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition
Where: Emeryville, CA
When: Friday March 12th, Saturday March 13th, Sunday March 14th
What: The Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition Brings Alternate History Back to the Bay Area ... This event is being put on by what sounds like the same people as the Steampunk Halloween convention in 2008 in Sunnyvale. What i've pieced together from the events list there will be a Ball, standard "Programming" which i'm assuming is panels/workshops, vendors, and "games" which i'm guessing table top/card games (i was surprised at the LARP in Seattle and amn't sure if the trend will continue here)

The Legion Fantastique Ball
Where: Masonic Lodge of San Mateo
When: Saturday, April 3 @ 8pm (dance lessons @ 7pm)
Who: Hosted by PEERS
What: Aeronauts, submariners, aetherial explorers, and gentlemen and lady adventurers of all type are invited to join the intrepid members of TheLegion Fantastique for a celebration in honour of the memory of their founder and inspiration, M. Jules Verne!

The Courts of Faerie Masquerade Ball
Where: Masonic Lodge of San Mateo
When: Saturday, May 1st @ 8pm (dance lessons @ 7pm)
Who: Hosted by PEERS
What: Waltz the night away among the fairies, pixies, goblins, redcaps, wizards, sorceresses, enchanted princesses, charming princes, intelligent cats, and Fairy Tale characters of every other description at the most magical ball of the season – when the Unseelie King and Queen of the Fae honour May Day and resign their crowns for six months to the blessed Seelie King and Queen.

Maker Faire
Where: San Mateo County Faire Grounds
When: Saturday May 22nd and Sunday May 23rd
Who: Markers of all innovative things
What: Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make thing

Sneak Peek of a summer event...

The Great Pan-Kinetic Exposition
Where: Vallejo Water Front (Same as Pirate Faire)
When: Saturday July 31st & Sunday August 1st
What: The Great Pan-Kinetic Exposition is an event that brings to life the history, grandeur and fantasy of the turn of the 20th century. The fantasy of H.G.Wells, great personalities like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, fabulous entertainments and one of a kind craftspeople embody the spirit of the event! Enticing aromas of American staples such as hot dogs, hamburgers, and apple pie will mix with soda fountains and popcorn stands. Contests for children and adults will share stages with magicians, Vaudeville acts, and electrical wonders.

An Edwardian Weekend full of Stripes and Croquet

2010-01-24T23:30:00.001-08:00

A couple of awesome friends accompanied me to the Edwardian Ball this weekend and we had a blast! In case you've missed the last few weeks of craftyness...this is what it had all been building to, and turned out to be worth it even if i skipped the polonaise.

Friday Night

Casual night, well casual for fantasy costumers. It was a super stripey night for us and the other patrons. K had been working on a stupendous black/white vertical striped skirt with cartridge pleating all around the waistline so the top of the skirt was solid black and the white sprayed out over her petticoat...gorgeous!!! Topped off we a red trimmed black jacket and adorable red hat. T went with a cute Edwardian style silver skirt, black shirt, and adorable short black bolero. Her skirt had the cutest baby bustle in the back! I had ditched the polonaise i had made the purse for a few weeks ago in lieu of what is now totally the ringmaster costume. A Mary Poppins corset that held everything and more that my purse does on a normal day along with reasonably flounced bloomers. Both in a matching dark green fabric with a fun shadow stripe vertically. This is the same costume i managed to completely sunburn myself in at Maker Faire last year, glad this was at night. The matching hat has been spruced up a bit with a couple of flowers that K made out of silver ribbons. Thanks lady!!!

The entertainment included a lot of fantastic singing, dancing, and great musicians. The music was always going with or without a band which helped to keep the energy in the main floor ball room high, even though the room wasn't packed. Some of the acts i managed to catch were: Fou Fou Ha!, Vagabond Opera, Agent Ribbons. There was constantly something shiny and spinning on stage, hard to avent your eyes.

A quick run through the vendors area set in that 2010 is the year of the hat. Not only were tons of people wearing them, but nearly 50% of the vendors had them with a large portion specializing in them. I love me some hats so this is fantastic news. I got to see House of Wormwood that made the two fantasic outfit building hats i own, the only hats i haven't made myself. The woman who makes all of the hats does a fantastic job and i nearly walked away with two super cute hats. A) Deep burgundy tricot with silk flowers that had been tea overdyed and looked completely worn. B) Orange like the Camel hat in a two piont tricot type style with gorgeous blk/white stripped ribbon cockade and a cute vintage button to hold it all in place. (I don't need another hat, i don't need another hat, i don't...)

Saturday Night

To the 9's! The A-game was brought (as K would say). T wore a soft blue velvet dress that she completely sewed by hand!!! Stab my eyes out that sounds painful, and damn the dress was beautiful! She embellished it was a crystal beaded trim along the front neckline and shirred satin cap sleeves. Topped it all off with a white silk flower...awesome!!! K went with the full fantasy costume from the Edwardian time as Ozma. Wearing a long natural cotton dress with a wrap that had ribbons falling from her shoulders and a crown. What's a princess without a crown?!?!? Fantastic copper wire crown with white silk flowers on the sides of the crown. I got out all of the petticoats, edwardian underwear (from Pirate Faire 2009), and super cute Subterranea black brocade dress from the 90's. K did my hair up super pretty and topped it off with a bow.

Entertainment included the Rosin Coven show, more acrobatics, and super awesome music. I'm not super sure which bands we saw as there was a lot of in and out to take some cute pictures along with a croquet break that ended in me getting pelted with croquet balls. Croquet is one of the few "sports" i learned to play with my family as a child (the other was hiking) and i love it! Something about getting to whack the balls around on the grass is very fulling, and much easier than mini golf. I'm sure it didn't hurt that it was in Alice in Wonderland and Heathers either being two of my favorite visual things.

Nothing new in the vendor area, but i did catch georgeous chandelier necklaces, and surprise surprise...i need one! There were necklaces that turned the most plain of women into starlettes, something highly seductive in a black 4" choker chandelier glass beaded necklace. I'm not sure where to find this item that i desperately need and after some looking on ebay/etsy i'm not quite sure where these beautiful examples came from. If anyone's got a great source please pass it along.

Post Ball...

The weekend was a blast and i can't wait for all of the fun that's ready to be had in February and March!!! Lots of other costume ideas were chatted about and so much inspiration was found in others from new and fun takes on top hats to how to get more ruffles out of your ruffles and tons of RED!

Event listy post to follow later this week...

New life for an old skirt

2010-01-18T16:07:00.001-08:00

More outfit planning has been occurring for the Edwardian Ball this coming weekend. While trying the dress i am going to wear on Saturday night the group consensus was it needed a petticoat to help with the fullness of the skirt. Without one it wasn't wretched, but it wasn't it's best either. A real fluff things up type petticoat is not something i own, i never really thought that i'd need one. Oh well... so it seemed that I would need to come up with or make one in the coming week which isn't bad as i love to sew, but i was also sad that it meant buying something new when i already have so many things. It's not a money thing as much as a being a responsible human and being a horrible consumer. I am doing my best to not buy things i don't really need. I've even scaled back my crafting as there is such a large waste generation.

With all of this in mind i set the petticoat project out of my mind and focused on my current sweater, even made some good progress on the sleeves! I decided to do some purging of my wardrobe. I really own a fair amount and i knew there had to be things in there i just wouldn't wear anymore. In the process i stumbled on a super lightweight black corduroy skirt that falls about mid calf i bought at H&M a few years back and never really wore because black corduroy picks up everything. I added it to the bye bye pile when my brain called it a petticoat! It had all of the makings to be a fantastic "smooth" petticoat and was already all put together.

All it needed was some poof which was partially purchased in a trip to Stone Mountain for some netting and the some reclaimed light weight crinolin from an old Goth Ball Gown i hacked up years ago. Sunday evening was spent overlocking and topstitching all of the pieces together to transform a flat skirt into super poofy i'll hold up the world undergarment! I am super happy with how everything turned out and how awesomly easy it was to find a new use for an old skirt.

The Flat Skirt Hand Shirring Netting to the Lining Poof-tastic!!!

The dress with new petticoat

Sylvar | Quick check in

2010-01-15T00:18:00.001-08:00

The body of the sweater is done!!! I've moved onto the sleeves and have decided to avoid the second sleeve syndrome and knit them at the same time on a long circular needle. So far I'm loving it! I only have to check what row I'm on once and then knit knit knit. I love the magic loop. More sweater to come over the next week along with a potential scarf start, and to top it all off the Edwardian Ball is quickly approaching and costumes are being complied.

Recycle and Reuse

2010-01-12T00:05:00.001-08:00

2010 is starting off on the right foot. The first crafty night was held at my house on Saturday and i had a blast! Fun movies, fun friends, and an overhaul project that only took one evening to complete!

In sticking with my desire this year to only make what i want married with my focus last year to waster less and re-use more produced a super fantastic project that came to mind at the perfect time. I have been wresteling with what i am going to wear to the Edwardian Ball in a few weeks. I finally settled on the Blue polonaise outfit for Friday night (Worlds Faire) and a good old goth dress for Saturday night (The Ball). I had make a quick reticule to go with the polonaise. Nothing fancy, nothing special...just a plain sewn bag with a drawcord closure. Pretty plain, and very un-worthy of the grand event of the Edwardian Ball! I needed a better, prettier, shiny purse.

The crafting evening began at Lacis with some corset boning purchased (not me, but one is coming soon...) to re-bone a good corset that someone had the nerve to put nasty plastic boning into...evil! While in Lacis i remembered the purse closures and thought about the first true purse i made to go with the Checked Wool Costume in Red Velveteen. I could totally take what i had, remove the drawcord, re-shape it, add a metal frame/closure, and trim it up for a fantastic purse that would take no more than a frame and some digging through the trimming scraps box. I found a super cute frame with flowers that remind me of Daisies.

After Lacis and a brief Stone Mountain run thought we stopped at my house and let the crafting begin. Movies, a bit of wine, and a fun project is an awesome Saturday night. I worked on my purse while friends worked on attaching new buttons to jackets and sewing new deeper darts into beautiful blue velvet dresses. We all worked on things for the Ball, it felt so Victorian!

After a couple of hours i had finished the purse using some beaded trim and lace left overs from other projects. The purse is now totally spruced up! I love it and can't wait to take it to the Edwardian Ball! What to work on next week?!??!?!?!

Polonaise Purse ... Teaser

2010-01-10T01:28:00.001-08:00

Some teaser images of a new purse I finished this evening while crafting with the gals. More info after sleepz...

Progress continues on Sylvar

2010-01-06T00:27:00.001-08:00

Progress continues on the new sweater Sylvar and in less than a week I am around 45% done! It's knitting up super fast as it's mostly basic knit an purl stitches. I only have a few more rows on the body before I get to the garter stitch band at the bottom. The band is suppose to be 6" tall, but I'm thinking I may knit more body before starting the band to add some waist definition to the sweater. Then it's onto the sleeves and my arch enemy ... double pointed needles. I may do these magic loop style on a singular circular needle. Actually that's a great idea! I'll do both at the same time on a circular needle to avoid "second sleeve syndrome" where you put off finishing a sweater because all you have left is the same damn sleeve as the one you just finished (barley escaping with your life). Oooooo! Now I'm excited and can't wait for the sleeves! With any luck the sleeves will be started this weekend and the entire sweater ready for it's debut in 2 weeks!

New Year, meet new Sweater - Sylvar

2010-01-03T19:10:00.001-08:00

The first project of the new year is something i've been eyeing for nearly a year...sweater #2. I've no made one sweater and one cardigan and am ready for the next challenge. I found this fantastic pattern at Stitches West 2009 while helping Tactile in the booth and being a good yarn whore. I bought the pattern as a top down all knit together sweater is a beautiful thing. You can try it on while you go and make adjustments as necessary. THIs is super critical for me with having no back and a fair amount of front to account for in the sweater shaping. I also really liked the yarn over eyelet's that ran up the body of the sweater in a leaf like pattern. Lastly it looked easy!

While digging around in the back room clearance section of Article Pract i managed to find 1100 yards of a black Cotton/Linnen in a medium weight that screamed sweater at me. Partly it screamed as the price for all of this lovelyness was only $67. Damn cheap for an entire sweaters worn of yarn. So purchased and brought home without a particular project it was, and happily. I leafed through some things and came across Sylvan and decided to give it a go. So far so happy! It's super cute and i can't wait to finish it. It is flying off the needles as i cast on New Years Day and have already finished over 25%. I think this one is a keeper ; )

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night...

2010-01-01T14:30:00.001-08:00

Good Night 2009! The year ended pretty much how it began, low key and very up in the air. The passing of 2009 marked a couple of special things for me: 1) the first whole year of living alone again; 2) a rejuvenation of my passion and drive for sewing; 3) strengthened relationships with all in my life both friends and family; and 4) more "me" and less "you". The last one is important as i often fall into the rut of what can i do for others and copmletely leave myself in the dust. Last year i made myself a promise that it would be the year of dre_ah! I would do, live, love for me ... and i really enjoyed it. I learned a lot about myself and it was the main reason i was able to deepen my relationships with others and find such pleasure in my relationships. I learned a lot about who i am and what i can and cannot change about me. I learned i like a lot more of me then i originally thought - AND - all of the laundry list of things i don't like are ALL changeable. This was a *super* awesome realization as it gave me power over my own life and destiny in a way that i never felt before. I tumbled a lot in 2009 and am glad for a new year to begin a new with all of my knowledge, experiences, family, and friends.

So 2009 i sewed, and sewed, and sewed... Well i'm not going to throw out the sewing machine or serger, my best-est buddy, but i am going to try to find a better balance in my crafting. in 2010 i want to make less projects for events and make more things i want! This is a big shift as i come from a land where you don't wear the same outfit to out EVAR!!! So allowing myself to dressup in a georgous outfit that will be seen by posibably the same group of people more than once is rather painful, but healthy. I don't need to re-invent the wheel each time there is something i want to go to. I have a fantastic wardrobe and a good sized costume collection of late Victorian garments that would love to be worn over and over again. So i am going to make up a list of the things i *want* without even looking at an events calendar to compile a rough projects list for 2010.

One such project that made it onto the list at 15 minutes into the new year is a shawl for a friend to wear to a friends wedding! I am so excited about this project as i have watched so many of my fellow knitters work up beautiful shawls for wedding completely envious of each of them. My female friend base is rather small and the men i know aren't ready for marriage so for me there has been no opportunity for wedding knitting which is a plethora of gorgeous lacy and beautiful styles. More to follow over the next few months as a pattern and yarn are pulled together. One of the best things is a have until May! I really super appreciate it when i get all of this advance notice as things tend to pile up in my life and take over the attention that is really due elsewhere.

Lastly ~ New Years Day has been Tamale day for years. It is a day i devote to slow fantastic cooking and allow myself time without end. No worrying about when this or that will be ready; it will happen when i t happens. I find it centers me for the coming year to take this time to myself and to allow a slow start to the new year. The tamales have always been vegetarian and made in large quantities. This year i am breaking away from the traditional been and cheese filling and am branching out into new things. Black beans are still the foundation, just not the only star. This morning was spent roasting Pobalno peppers in the oven which along with some jalapenos, sweet potatoes, onion, and a dash of cheese is going to make up the filling. It sounds fantastic and i can't wait for this evening when everything is done and the first steamed tamale of the new year makes it's way onto my plate. Mmmmm...

2010...I'm ready!

Finally Complete with the Holiday Treats

2009-12-30T00:17:00.001-08:00

Starting late also means finishing late, i was reminded of this year unfortunately. Alas i have finally finished the last of the holiday giftyness and am ready to pass them onto the parental units! A scarf for each of the parents as they plan this year to start building a house in a cooler climate then where they live today. Really i think anywhere is cooler than where they are in the Southern California area ... yep, another 80 degree Christmas this year. So i decided to help build their non-existent winter wardrobes up with some cute scarves. I am super pleased with how each turned out and it was only my third time blocking lace! My first time blocking anything so wide (other blocking adventures were for Lace trim only a couple inches wide).

Green/Tan Crochet for Dad

Soft Rose Lace Knit for Mom

A Snowy Vintage Spring Dress

2009-12-27T20:12:00.001-08:00

So i have this filing cabinet, which i have owned since i was 10. It's a legal width 4 drawer filing cabinet. I have never had that many papers but when i was offered one i knew it would all be put to use someday. Nearly 20 years later as i try to find room in it for just *one* more sewing/knitting pattern or cooking recipe I noticed too many things over the years have been purchased and promptly been filed away. Since i am working from home over the winter holidays this year i saw it as an opportunity to make some of the things i have set off to the side for years.

My first project was an adorable Vintage Vogue Sewing Pattern - 1954 Bolero & Dress (#2267) ... i decided on just the dress for now as i have TONS of adorable sweaters to coordinate back i would like to wear more often. I purchased this pattern years ago at a sale for a dollar. It has a super cute fitted shape and a goregous square neckline. What i did not notice until closer inspection yesteray morning were the bust darts and the side zipper. Now i get that it might need bust darts if i was looking to make the dress in a stripe or some other type of vertical pattern to help keep the pattern straight at both the skirt and the upper body. Since i was using a ditzy floral repeat i really didn't want the evil darts nor was i too thrill about a side zip since this meant an invisible zipper as no one needs extra giant zipper sticking out along the side of an extremely fitted dress making them look at least one size larger.

Saturday morning i traced off a copy of the original pattern and began to work out the problems. First off i added to the bust circumference at the side front panels as when i measured the bust it was an inch small. I played with working out the dart on the front side panel, but it wasn't cooperating. The dart was stubborn and looked awful when i would release it into the body of the dress, oh well!

I cut out a muslin of the dress of the dress, did a quick sew up job, and got it on the form to see the damage. Not bad Vintage Vogue! I ended up tripling the dart depth at the bust, not suprising as i am much deeper than i am wide. Also there was absolutley no shape at the back waist so a fair amount of scooping out there was also pinned out. Lastely the shoulders were a bit too long. After a bit of truing on the neck/armhole facings i felt i was ready for the real fabric as most of the change were pretty minor.

Pattern was adjusted by the evening and luckily i had already washed and ironed the fabric so i was ready to go. I went with a medium weight brushed twill to flat line the dress as the base fabric was a quilting print cotton. Normally i would not think to line something like this, but i wanted to ensure that the sweep really looked full and didn't just hang lifeless when worn. I wanted a stiffer, more rigid 50's look to the dress then the recommended single layer of poplin. After cutting everything out the serger made an appearance going around the edges of all size dress panels to secure the twill to the fashion fabric. I love you serger!!! If you don't have one and do a lot of knits or flat lining i highly recommend one as they add tremendously to your sanity levels, especially when you are trying to power through a project. After an entire day of sewing i had finished nearly the entire dress, got it back on the form, and was totally in love. It's so cute! AND the invisible zipper went in on the sewing machine without any complaints. Either the zippers have gotten better or sewing for 20 years is starting to pay off. This morning i awoke, popped in a movie, and began ironing the last portion of the dress, the hem. After a couple hours i had a completed beautifully hemmed dress.

With a whole other week of the holiday break i am hoping to keep up the momentum and complete another project or two. Some Christmas scarves and many even a button front shirt or two? Also i have some fantastic White/Black printed Geisha fabric that is totally calling to me Goth Lolita with giant black satin bows...

Grateful for a Delayed Holiday

2009-12-25T01:32:00.001-08:00

As usual i am a teeny bit behind on my holiday gift completion. Just two scarves only 60% behind. Luckily the two scarves are for mom & dad and i will be seeing them in January, so it didn't seem like the gifts had to get in the mail pre-Christmas. The scarf for Mom is coming along beautifully! I love how the cashmere feels to knit and the stitch pattern with a simple 6 stitch x 6 row repeat is super easy and allowing me to catch up on Dexter (almost up to everyone else...).

To the left is the scarf for Dad. This will be my second ever gifted crocheted item, and i'm really like'n it! I picked two colors that my father always wears in hopes that even living in SoCal with an 80 degree Christmas he may some day decide to wear said scarf. Still no word if he ever wears the socks from his birthday last year...i'll totally have to harass him about them in January...hehehehehe.

Details about Dad's Crochet Scarf:
* Yarn = Rowan Lima
* Colors = Hunter Green - AND - Beige

Pattern:
* Chain 12 Stitches (Base Row)
* Chain 2 Stitches (Fake Double Crochet Stitch)
(Double Crochet all stitches on every row)
* 10 rows of 2 Strands - Both Color A
* 10 rows of 2 Strands - 1 Color A & 1 Color B
* 10 rows of 2 Strands - Both Color B

Beginning a bit late..

2009-12-19T03:24:00.000-08:00

I made the decision to start a couple of Christmas gifts a little late this year...like tonight. It's nice to have a small family that is also super understanding that hand made = takes Andrea forever to make ;p

I just started a scarf in Cashmere for me ma using a shawl lace pattern from "Victorian Lace Today" Miss Lambeets Shetland Shawl. It's a super simple six row repeat with only six stitches across. So far so pretty; now I just need to figure out how to finish it before Tuesday night and somewhere also knit Dad a hat. At least the bro's is done, and adorable if I don't say so myself! Pictures to follow once it's been gifted away.

FIlling the need for somewhere to put my phone for dickens - AND - Making a VIctorian Purse

2009-12-12T23:53:00.001-08:00

Dickens Faire!!! Finally the time of year to dress up in your best walking costume and go stroll the fantastic streets of a time long ago. Well it is super hard to look good while strolling if you're holding a camera and an iPhone. So today as the costume was pulled out and accessories were gathered all together a gaping hole in my ensemble was discovered...i have no purse for the Checked Wool Costume! It does have a couple of welt pockets on the front of the jacket, but not enough for all the goodies required for a day out. The brain started thinking and decided that it would the perfect rainy day activity to whip up a Victorian Purse for all my strolling needs.

A dig through the fabric bin of things long since past produced more than enough of the Red Velveteen used on the Checked Wool Costume saving me the headache of having to try to match it. Next a trip to Lacis to procoure a Metal Purse Frame and Chain. I found a super cute Antique Nickle color frame with Rhinestones in the clasps that was adorable.

If you have ever sewn a reticule...this is even easier depending upon your Metal Frame type. I went with a "Sew-on" type frame so i would not have to mess with trying to crimp down a frame. There are also frames that will screw together to hold the fabric in place. Another great method, but sewing was going to be the least intense for me and with trying to make this a couple hour project i was all about easy. I found a fantastic website with simple instructions and pictures where appropriate for putting together the bag. I opted against super cute trimmings and lace as the walking costume is on the clean side with very little trim.

i LOVE how it turned out and can't wait for Dickens tomorrow to show it off. It was so quick i've already pulled out some bags to buy frames for and convert from drawstring and reticule type bags in the future. I really enjoyed attaching the bag to the frame and prefer the clean and structured look of having the bag attached to a metal frame.

Pretty Woven Things from New York

2009-12-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

During November i had a very short trip to New York and managed to squeeze in 30 minutes at Mood and find two things i could NOT live without.

"Spring Stripes and Flowers"
This was screaming at me to become some sort of short sleeved regency dress...i can't wait to pick a silouhette!!!

"Cotton Grey Diamonds"
This was soft, dark, and had a great small ditsy diamond all over. Not sure what will come of it, but i got four yards just in case a knee length jacket with a shirred peplum comes to mind...again

I did not find the things i was looking for, so if anyone knows a good place for corduroy please pass it along. I can't believe how hard it's been to find the right fabrics for the Miss Hatter costume! I am looking for a hunter green cord and a deep velvety black cord for a jacket and hat. I will eventurlly need to come up with something for the dress as well...but that will need to match the jacket so cord is the top priority.

The Day Dress has Begun

2009-12-05T23:30:00.001-08:00

After a few weeks of going back and forth i decided to work on what i will enjoy, so the 1880's Day Dress has been started! Not sure if it will make Dickens this year, but so far so good.

This evening i cut out and sewed up a muslin of the bodice of the dress. The skirt is a *very* simple shirred straight skirt so no need to mock it up. I was super impressed! The bodice fit very well for a first fitting. The only corrections i needed to make were to the back scooping out some of the excess along the princess seams as i have a small back waist - AND - shifting the front armhole excess to the side panel, i'm deeper then wider and could use the width at the back armhole much more than the front. The corrections only took a few minutes and now the pattern is ready to be cut out!

The bodice fitting...

Unfortunately i am short on muslin for the bodice lining...and i don't want to cut anything until i know i have enough and everything fits! Nothing worse then finding out you do not have enough fabric when you are already so committed and have cut most of what you do have. It's not all bad as this means a trip to the fabric store tomorrow. YEA!!!!

Finding out i don't have enough fabric :(

Back at my home away from home

2009-11-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

Yes folks...I am in New York. Just when I thought the travel was nixed for the rest of the year work was able to squeeze in two trips across the states before Christmas. This trip will be to attend the Apparel Tech Conference; an annual event where companies showcase their latest products that are revolutionizing the world of apparel manufacturing. It's actually facinating to see all of the 3d modeling and design applications as they improve over the years. Last year was the first time I saw applications that actually felt like they were helping to speed up the process instead of making it overly complicated and ridiculously technical (and not in an awesome Steampunk style). I've got fingers crossed this year things will start to become integrated and we will start to see seamless transitions between applications. Imagine if illustrator spoke to a pattern design program and drafted the initial pattern without me having to do a whole lot. Oh the beautiful world of 2025 ; )

Also this means fabric shopping!!! I will be trying out a new hotel that is blocks away from the fashion district so hopefully my nearly empty suitcase will be full of goodies for Dickens and the Miss Hatter Costume that has been ratteling around in my head.

What to make next...

2009-11-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

As Dickens approaches and I come to terms with the fact the I barely have time to make one dress much less two I am now faced with a choice. I have patterns and fabric for two dresses. Below are pictures of the sillouhette and fabric of each of the items I could work on next.

The first is a ditsy blue floral on a white background in a light weight cotton. The dress is a super cute and is a pleated dress that is the right years for Dickens.

The second is an adorable dress from the 1880's (more my time period and sillouhette) in a beautiful white and blue plaid that is a medium weight cotton.

Audience participation time! Which do you think I should work on? 1) time appropiate blue floral pleated dress - OR - 2) super re-wearable blue plaid???

Costumes for a new day

2009-11-06T00:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight was spent at a dance theatre watching the first draft of a new piece for Double Vision to help all the collaborators get inspired. I'm inspired! It super rocks and I can't wait to get started on the costumes!!!

So initial thoughts include stripes, maybe cat wash or asymmetrical skirts, and some strappy top (probably also asymmetrical). The piece feels stiff in a good way, rigid. It inspired stripes and steel grey with black and white. Shiny may be required ; )

Here are some concept sketches... (also maybe some wristlettes and anklettes???)

Recap of a Brass Filled Weekend - Steam-Con

2009-11-02T23:55:00.001-08:00

For months everyone has been listening and watching me prepare for Steam-Con. Sewing pretty much took over my life, minus a life changing road trip in the middle, for most of 2009. This all consuming passion helped me in ways to focus, feel productive, and motivate me to do what i love...that i sometimes forget just how much i love.

Steam-Con took place in Seattle at the Airport Marriott with an approximate 1,200 person cap of attendees the hotel was completely infiltrated by brass, airship captains, and stupendously creatively like minded people...it was fantastic!!! I swear posts will follow with costumy bits, but first the con. We arrived Thursday afternoon and had already noticed a few who looked like they had the same destination as us. Hat boxes were a plenty on the plane and more than once prior to take off you heard someone say "i have a hat up there, do you mind moving your bag?" so awesome!!! Upon arriving at the hotel, via free shuttle, room was gotten and suitcases exploded. I took a fifth of what i brought to the con when i traveled Europe in the fall for three weeks. The Con was only 3 days; but in all fairness the Victorian/Steampunk styling does require both a lot of undergarment layers that are otherwise not necessary, and more costume changes a day then a wear in a weekend. There were day outfits, evening outfits, and even some morning/dressing outfitness. The many pieced outfits were pulled out and hung out to increase the sanity by decreasing the quantity of ironing required. Some how we went the entire weekend iron free. Thursday evening there was a bit of exploring and lots of discussion of what the next day was to bring.

Friday morning i awoke to a small line of people visible in the indoor courtyard of the hotel. Over the hours as we got ready we watched the line slowly increase, but not move. Somehow the line was only growing, not moving or having any kind of processing. Early afternoon we may our way downstairs to said line and found that it was for on-site registration which had been announced to be nearly sold out and lots of people wanting to join the party. It was fantastic to see so many people at a con that was in it's first year and awesome to watch over the weekend at how well the whole thing went off!

Friday afternoon involved lounging around and fluttering from panel to panel. All good, but all hot from the large amounts of people in each room. This wasn't frustrating and everyone remained calm and collected. When we got to hot we ventured outside for a bit, no biggie. Friday evening offered a DJ hosted dance, where *much* dancing and fun was enjoyed. The room had a good amount of people especially for being a 21 and over event. I was glad to see that they offered a dance as it gets people out and together. Most of the con's i've been to over the last few years have been seriously lacking in the after hours activities. Well i took full advantage of the dance, a bit more enjoyment that was necessary and thus spent the first half of Saturday sleeping off the fantastically good time had on Friday.

Once i did arise on Saturday a couple more panels were attended and totally enjoyed. There were smart people there with smart things to say. Some things said were things i knew, especially things about sewing/costuming/tricking things out; but there was also large amount of insightful dialogue theorizing about how it was and tons of great explore conservations about what steampunk is and what it means. I am really enjoying watching this new genre form and listening to all of the idea forming conversations around Steampunk. People are making it up as they go and finding evediance to back up their statements, and it's good! I can't wait to see how this continues to evolve over the next few years with new cons popping up all over the world.

Also on Saturday afternoon was a tea and fashion show. Fantastic tea setup with goodies and weak or strong tea for all while we enjoyed a Steampunk fashion show. No pictures, they were hauling it down the runway and back so they were all blurry city. A recap of some of my favorites: Mens Ties sewn together as the back of a jacket, some Illig inspired strappy skirts, and a wide stripe black/white dinner jacket very circus inspired. Everything reminded me of some great items collecting dust in the closet. I really enjoy how much of the brighter side of the industrial scene comes through in Steampunk.

Saturday night was the "Airship Invasion" concert. Abney Park was the only band we caught, after the great changing of the clothes. It was good, but i've seen them before and just wasn't feeling large amounts of energy in the room. It was "sold out" but there was TONS of space in the room so it felt kinda sparse. Still worth the $15!

Sunday was packing and returning home. It was nice to sleep in my own bed again without a line of people hanging around outside my window, but i also miss looking at all of the creativeness that was at Steam-Con.

Panels that rocked
* Faux Finishes , Aging Gear & Apparel | Panel members were costumers and the audience participation in conservation led to fantastic technique discussions
* The Sharp Dressed Man | There were quite a few panels focused on mens fashions, nice to see as often only the women get this attention...also the most packed with people

Panels that *sounded* like they would have rocked, that i missed
* Celestial Navigation | Super helpful for character building of anything airship, also stars rock
* Dungeons and Dickens: How to Steampunk your RPG | anyone helping people be better story tellers gets points
* Rusty Gears & Shiny Sprockets | The con was so well organized they even scheduled a "tell us what you like and didn't like" panel. The entire con was this well planned and excuted, very impressive for the turnout and for the first year.

Bottom Line ... Yes, i would/will go back next year. The panels were fun and interesting, the location was easy and affordable, and the people were super cool.

Let the Holiday crafting/cooking begin!

2009-11-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

I love the fall and winter. So many different celebrations for all different walks of life. Time for hand made gifts, fantastic recipes, and time with friends and family. Of course Christmas gifts always sneak up on me, but this year i'm taking it all in stride and have already decided that the world will not end if everyone doesn't get fancy things this year. Between looking for a house and my crazy works schedule i am hoping to fit in some good baking and cooking time so watch out Thanksgiving...

Part of my holiday plans this year include attending Dickens Fair in San Francisco a couple of times which means a couple of new costumes. I do love sewing no matter how much i complain about it. There is some fabric lying around and a couple of cute time period appropriate patterns hanging out that have been givin each other the eye. I need to give everything a once over and nail the outfits down so i can plan the holiday creativity out and set some goals.

Holiday gifts will also need to be made this year and a couple of birthdays. I do have parents and a brother to think of and lots of fantastic friends that have been there for me a lot over this trying year who super deserve some awesome treats. Luckily the family is very easy going and low key. The brother has requested another beanie, which shouldn't take more then a day or two, and the mom/dad got blankets and socks last year so this year can be on the smaller side. I just finished a pretty rockin Christmas Stocking for me that might work with different setups for some others...I can't wait for the yarn shopping!!! I always forget that i can also "Sew" for others. For some reason gifting pops into my head as knitting and a bit o' crochet. Sewing is just as awesome and something i have been doing a bit more of this year. Any ideas for some cute sewn gifty items?

Released from the Sewing Machine for one weekend of fun

2009-10-30T23:53:00.001-07:00

Hi! Yep, i'm actually *not* dead as many probably figured. No no, what really happened was silly drama and a super evil costume deadline when i was totally not in the mood. For the last two months i have been sewing non-stop day/night/twilight. I managed to finish a large amount of the wish list prior to heading off with a costuming buddy to Steam-Con last weekend. Luckily i finished enough and had other goodies in my closet that i was able to outfit for the weekend even with an evening costume change ; ) Unfortunately i spent all weekend posing for other peoples pictures of my fantastic outfits that i only ended up with a couple of pictures on my own camera (nothing really to be ashamed of). Below are pictures of the daytime outfits and more "fill in the gaps" posts to follow now that the sewing machine has been tucked away for all of an hour.

Bustle Appropiate Petticoat and Traveling Bustle Complete

2009-08-29T19:19:00.001-07:00

This week was all about getting the under garments for the Checked Wool Costume complete and ready for me to begin fitting the garments next week...and i did it! I finished the petticoat that has the extra length for the bustle to be worn underneath as the over garments require a bustle. I again used the Truly Victorian pattern for Victorian Petticoats #TV170 selecting view B (small bustle back, flat front). For the outer fabric i found a plaid weave linen in unbleached cotton. The entire petticoat is lined with a heavy unbleached muslin. And again all clean finished seams. It will be great to have a petticoat that works with a bustle!

Also i drafted a pattern for a "traveling bustle". An under garment to help with the bustle effect on the back and be completely fold-able. I did some rough math and then went for it. I am very pleased with how the traveling bustle came out (Full instructions to follow in separate post). The petticoat above is shown with the traveling bustle underneath. It gave it a perfect 2 1/2" extra length in the back. Some pretty pictures!

Petticoat #2 Update!

2009-08-25T23:29:00.001-07:00

Progress has been made on the new petticoat (#2)! Everything was cut out on Sunday, About 50% sewn yesterday with a bit of working from home to help, and this evening another 15% was completed. If work would have released me at a reasonable time instead of nearly 12 hours after walking through the doors that morning i may have gotten through more...but who knows. This one is moving much faster than the first one, but also i have been able dedicate large chunks of continuous time which super helps. We are now down to:

1) Sewing the grograin ribbon along the front and side seams (This requires a Stone Mountain run to procure the correct color of thread tomorrow after work)
2) Shirring and attaching the ruffle along the sweep
3) Sewing the grograin ribbon along the Ruffle seam to clean finish
4) Pleating the Back Waist to Fit the Waistband
5) Sewing the Waistband to the garment
6) Crossing my fingers that i have enough left over ribbon to use for the tie at the waist
7) Starting the next project!!!

Next project is the "Traveling Bustle". Here are some links to pictures. There are patterns out there...but the sewn up versions look awful! I am *so* capable of doing better...so i challenge me to do better. The plan to complete this task is to draft a pattern and test it this weekend, hopefully it's close enough that i can cut and sew one up real quick afterwords and call it complete with the undergarments for the Checked Wool Costume this week.

Let the Costuming Countdown Begin!

2009-08-24T00:14:00.001-07:00

So i have 8 1/2 weeks to complete all of my costume goodies for Steam-Con. Ummm... Yes, i could you a very hard kick in the pants to get moving. All of last week should have been spent sewing, but alas. I decided it was much more enjoyable to read, take long baths, and go to the movies. None of which have helped me prepare for the trip. Tonight i finally found some motivation and got moving. I cut out the petticoat for the Checked Wool Costume and should have no problem sewing it up over the next couple of days. This week i need to complete the petticoat, traveling bustle, and begin working on the Checked Wool Costume if i'm going to get three outfits completed in less than 2 months. Ahhh!!!

The petticoat will be a quick sew as this is #2. I am using the same pattern, with an added scoop to the CB to accommodate a bustle, that was used for my first petticoat. I found a super cute woven fabric the shade of un-dyed muslin with a plaid weave style running throughout the fabric and have cut out a heavy un-dyed muslin lining. It will be a bit heavy, but super cute, and the weight will be necessary to stand up against the wool, heavy twill, and velveteen of the Check Wool Costume. Also things are going tons faster since the purchase of my fantastic dress form.

Hunter Green Lacy Beginnings

2009-08-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

So i have 3 complete Victorian costumes to finish in about two months ... so i started a new knitting project, the Hunter Lace Tank, to help keep me sane amongst all of the sewing madness that will be happening. I have had the yarn, Tsuki in a hunter green, specifically for this project for about a year. It was purchased way back when Artfibers had a store in the city (SF) and one could get lost in there playing with sample yarn and knitting swatches. I had come across the pattern and thought " i totally need a lacy fitted tank top!" Ummm...it was cute, but also going to be tons of work with the full square skirt, elastic thread, and a lacy front. The lacy front kept me coming back, it's super cute. Also i haven't explored the lace much so this project has been itching to get started for a while.

What it should like like when finished...

What it looks like now, post 2.5 days of a knitting weekend...

A Headband for all Time

2009-08-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

I have a queue in Ravelry that every now again begs for attention. After two weeks of hiking and mostly reading (with a bit of sock knitting) I found my queue calling to me for a quick project. Nothing fancy, but something quick and easy and practical...a headband!!! I have tons of hair and love head bands so it's perfect. I pulled out the recycled cotton yarn that i used for the star stitch skirt last year and grabbed a pattern from the queue. After two days of tv/podcast knitting i was done!

It felt great to pull something out and finish it, quick and easy. This was a great reminder that not all projects need to be giant epic projects that span decades of time and sanity. More lite projects here and there to come.

Sunny Sock Sunset

2009-08-17T23:37:00.001-07:00

The Sunny Socks are done!!! They were the fantastic trip knitting for the two weeks of camping and they were tons of fun. I love the colors. I am not a bright colors gal, but there is something about bright socks i adore. I had some cotton sock yarn and was itching to give it a try. The socks came out mostly ok. Since they are cotton there is not a lot of give. They aren't too big, but they do stand away from the ankle a bit. Also they have not been washed or blocked. I'm guessing if i treat them like socks, washer and dryer, they will shrink up to the perfect fit. I enjoyed the traveling eyelet pattern. It's nice to have something interesting on the sock but to not have to stare at a pattern all the time to get it. I will definitly do these again as there is no need for the instructions. The short row toe is easy and neat as well is the short row heel. Paired with the roaming eyelets my only complaint was not being able to knit both socks together on one circular needle at the same time. The only reason this doesn't work is because at the ankle you need to move stitch from one needle to another to keep the eyelet pattern seam less. I think the next pair may have a zigzag instead of a ring to the eyelet placement to allow for two at a time knitting.

Arches National Park = Hot and Sandy Trails

2009-08-14T15:56:00.001-07:00

After the lush fields of plants in Zion we drove on Eastward through Bryce and onto Arches National Park. Arches totally deserves it's name with beautiful natural arches everywhere and gorgeous desert terrain like petrified sand dunes. We camped at the park camp grounds and found a fantastic spot to erect an amazing "Radiation Deflector" = a piece of fabric for shade ; ) This turned out to be a super must as the temperatures rose to nearly 100F at lunch time ... ouch! There were massive sunburns earned along both of the longer trails we journeyed.

Negro Bill Trail | This trail is just off the highway and considered "highly shaded". This translates to at mid day nearly 30% of the trail being shaded. Given the other trails in the park this is tons of shade and most are full cover, but it still felt a little misleading. The trail runs along a stream for about 2 miles going over rocks and crossings over the stream in multiple places. The trail itself is well marked with signs and there is some over growth as we went rather late in the season. The trail ends into a beautiful large arch and a small pool. This was most non-existent as we were there in August, but there was plenty of stream to stop and soak the feets in.

Devils Canyon Trail | The trail head is just past the campgrounds inside the park. The trail is considered the major trail in the park and is totally worth the just over 4 miles round trip. All of the guide information will tell you to bring 2+ liters of water per person...you will want to do this. The trail is very poorly marked in places and it is quite easy to get yourself set on a side journey. The water is key to keep up your spirits and energy while you get through the minimal cover (7-10% morning and evening | less than 2% midday) and if you need to go back and find the real trail. Gorgeous arches at each of the off shoots and all are recommended. The view from on top of the fins is amazing as you can see across the entire valley to the north; this is a different view from the south facing camp grounds and adds to the beauty of the valley. The compass was *very* helpful for this one.

Vampires delaying my knitting!

2009-08-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Knitting was totally brought on the vacation...i swear!!! The problem was that so was two large books that i wanted to tear through immediately. I got a little sucked into the Stephanie Meyer Vampire Books. A little sucked in equals the first two books (Twilight | New Moon) in one week prior to the trip and the last two books (Eclipse | Breaking Dawn) in 5 days. Yep, the trip consisted of me somehow managing to read 1300 pages in 5 days, yea for someone else driving and motion sickness medication! Now that i'm through them...i liked them! Not my Anne Rice Vampires, these ones are sparkly cute vegetarians...but fun! They were all quick reads and totally read like film. Not heavy books, thus the "teen" section at the library. I guess there is a 5th book | Breaking Dawn | with some nonsense surrounding it. The letters and such seem a bit overly dramatic for someone posting a copy of the book early, considering how popula the series is, but i get the author is hurt by the whole thing. Has anyone else read these or kept up with the drama over the 5th book?

Well the "Real" books in the series have all been read and book 4 even said The End so i have been able to rejoin the world of the knitting. Toe up socks! These are so quick and easy. After only two daqys i have nearly a whole socks done and no crazy instructions were followed for turning the heel. I think i still prefer the top down socks in final appearance and the working both from the very first stitch to the last. One pretty Sunny Sock nearly complete ... his brother is on the way ;)

Beautiful Scenic Views brought to you by Zion National Park

2009-08-13T10:23:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the Canyon Overlook Trail in Zion National Park | Fantastic short hike, 1 mile round trip, with only one weary bridge and lots of great views. Not a bad way to start the nature part of the trip : )

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Sharky Time in Vegas

2009-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

As a quick last thing to do in Vegas a visit to the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay was decided upon. I have been before, but it's still awesome to go to the only predator based aquarium in the US...rock out piranha's!!!

Mister Komodo Dragon taking in some sun bathing

Fishies i don't believe i've met before...so cute!!!

Criss Angel and Cirque du Soleil know Costumes!!!

2009-08-07T21:50:00.001-07:00

Part of the road trip was a required stop in Las Vegas. This was not required for booze, gambling, or hookers. This was put on the "i want it now" list because of a Cirque du Soleil show starring Criss Angel. I had no idea who this guy was or even his stichk...but after seeing pictures of "victorian broken dolls" online i knew i had to go. Tickets were pricey...but it's freakin Cirque du Soleil and a guy with a TV show who can apparently levitate. After having seen the show i can honestly say it was more than worth it. Georgeous costumes and fantastic Cirque du Soleil style dream sequences left nothing to be desired. I sat on the edge of my seat the entire show having to remind myself to close my mouth and not oggle the costumes too much here and there.

"Criss Angel Believe" The show began as appearing to be a standard Magic show. Very quickly a twist is taken and the dreaming begins. There is a fantastic Alice in Wonderland feel with all sort of different rabbits throughout the show as they are the "Magician's Best Friend". The rabbits also help pull you down the rabbit hole into a world were Victorian dolls are broken and twisted, rabbits feed on human flesh, and disembodied animal heads doing acrobatics aren't so weird and they are fantastically entertaining.

If you are going through Vegas in the next six months or before the show closes it's a must see. I managed to restrain myself and walk away with only a program to keep the memories alive (the soundtrack isn't going to be released until November!!!)...but if anyone has some free time when i get home it's worth a mighty long oggling session as there are corsets, stripper shoes, 10 foot train skirts, and Victorian evil rabbits ga-lore!!!

Adventures in the Mojave Airplane Graveyard

2009-08-06T11:06:00.001-07:00

The fact that i didn't melt says a lot about my determination to see the awesome planes through the 100F degree heat. It kinda hurts to look at the dirt and see all of the heat just sitting on top of it. Next time this is totally a November trip, the desert is awesome at night in the winter.

The day began with a late arrival at the Mojave Airport & Space Center, late meaning about noon. We followed the minimal instructions we could find online and headed for building number 58 under the tower. Score! Found a person who explained all, and were told that the guy who would take us on the van tour was just heading out for lunch and to come back at 1pm. It couldn't sound better as i was expecting to roam around in the desert on foot for a few hours at mid day and pass out, the thought of an air conditioned van sounded like bliss.

To kill some time Denny's was sought out for a milkshake, my sweet tooth is unsatisfiable some times. Yummy! Then back to the tower for the awesome tour.

The tour was awesome! We ventured back into the office under the tower for the van ride, after paying $10 total for the van ride that could accommodate 8 easily. A couple of things learned from the tour
* Tour Guide for over 23 year = Javier = awesome!!!
* Van tours started in 1991 when they got tired of tourists trying to run out on the runway.
* Previously the tourists could only walk up to the runway and looked at the planes from a distance.
* Waterworld and Speed were filmed here
* A crazy old commercial came up about people right after smoking was banned inside planes... Javier told the tale of cute women sitting on the wings of a plane smoking while fake stewardess' served them to say it should be ok to smoke on a plane.

Awesome place...

Beginning of the Road/Camping trip and socks

2009-08-05T12:11:00.001-07:00

Last night the Fall journey began. The first leg of the trip is from the bay area down through the Mojave Desert with a peek in to the Airplane Graveyard and continuing onto Vegas for a few days. So far so good! I would of course would prefer a bit cooler weather than the heat that the inland areas are currently going through, but all in all it's not bad. With the first section of the leg done i'm excited about the Airplane Graveyard in the morning. It should be some awesome sightseeing and it would be great to get some photos of older planes. Message me if ya want a postcard.

In the car, in the dark, i decided to cast on for a new pair of socks. Ummm...i actually can't read or see in the dark...especially enough to start toe-up socks, a project i have never done or read the instructions for before. Hehehehe... I'm sure some of the passer-bys in their cars got a good giggle out of watching me trying to hold up my knitting and instructions into the headlights shinning behind me. Once the hotel was reached i pulled out the socks and gave the instructions a good going through and so far today i have gotten through nearly the first toe!

I am using a cotton yarn i picked up at Color: A Fiber Festival a little while ago. It's a gorgeous yellow green...my Sunny Socks : )

(This post brought to you by free internet from the Desert Inn Hotel...yea for unsecured wireless!!!)

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House Week 33: I have to install how many switches???

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